Starting From Zero
by UnholyDiver
Summary: She was a failure with one last chance to prove herself worthy of the title 'Noble'. He was just happy to finally have his head on straight and his life back in order. Neither was prepared for what came next. (AU, Rated M for Language, Violence, and occasional Sexual Themes)
1. Prologue- Brave New World

_If you happen to be one of those people who are in the habit of paying attention to the world around you, you may one day notice that the most extraordinary things most often happen to the most extraordinary people. Granted, this is not always the case, as there are exceptions to every rule. But more often than not, a spark of greatness is already present within those chosen for glory by that all-powerful enigma known as Fate. They are chosen for their task because they have already been groomed for it by the challenges they've faced in life, or because they possess the mindset and skills needed to make the impossible possible, or maybe because excellence just runs in the family. But sometimes…_

-)(-

 _*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEE-_ *CLACK*

"Urrrrrrrrrghhhhh…" A young man vocally expresses his displeasure with consciousness, and retracts his outstretched hand from the abused alarm clock lying on the wooden desk next to his bed. He lightly brushes the wayward strands of light brown hair out of his emerald green eyes, only to immediately slam them shut, hissing in pain upon their contact with the early morning sunlight streaming in through his all-too-inadequate window curtains.

Resolving himself to bravely conquer the migraine that he could feel trying to establish dominance by taking a miniature sledgehammer to the inside of his skull, he slowly forces his eyes open bit by bit, the numerous posters and cream colored walls of his dorm room becoming slightly less blurry with each passing second. Slowly turning to face the noisy device that so rudely interrupted the blissful aftermath of a horrible lapse in judgement, the clock's face impassively answered the unspoken question of _"can I go back to sleep now?"_ with an equally silent _"It's 7:16 in the morning, so no, you can't."_ The young man grumbles in dissatisfaction, but swings his legs over the side of the bed and stands up all the same, deciding that if sleeping in wasn't an option, then a hot shower would probably be the next best thing.

Exiting his bedroom and absently stepping over the discarded laundry of the dorm room's sole other occupant, the young man slowly makes his way to the shared bathroom to begin his daily routine. Twenty-eight minutes later, he emerged feeling considerably more awake (and cleaner) than he had when he first woke up, and after running a brush through his teeth and a comb through his hair (determining that it had crossed the 'good enough' threshold), the young man returned to his room in search of passable clothing in which to face the day. He had already donned a pair of well-worn jeans, and it was as he was slipping on a light blue t-shirt that he heard the front door of the dorm room open, announcing the arrival of his roommate, friend, and occasional bad influence, Nathan.

"G'morning, Sleeping Beauty" the lanky blue-eyed blond greeted him, stepping into his doorway with an amused smile and a cup of Starbucks coffee in his hand, "do you feel as bad as you look?"

"You are _such_ a douche. That is the last time I let you talk me into drinking at one in the freaking morning."

"Oh come on, that's no way to treat someone who brought you coffee", Nathan answered him with a grin, handing the steaming cup to his longtime friend, who accepted it with a glare. "Besides, it's not my fault you have a hangover. Maybe you should stop being such a little bitch when it comes to booze, hmm?"

"Fuck you, your parents own a winery. How the hell am I supposed to keep up with someone who's been an alcoholic since he was six?" the young man responded, reciprocating the long-standing tradition of trading good-natured barbs that their relationship seemed to be built on, in-between alternating sips of the refreshingly bitter liquid and tying the laces on a pair of running shoes. "What the hell did you even put in those drinks anyway?"

"A better question would be 'what _didn't_ I put in those drinks?'" the self-proclaimed 'Aryan Wonder' grinned as he watched his roommate shoot him another glare of annoyance, before shaking his head and adopting a more serious expression. "Anyway, shouldn't you be in more of a hurry? You've been moaning about O'Connor's test for the past week-and-a-half."

"So?"

" _So_ , don't you think you're cuttin' it pretty close as it is?" the blond elaborates, faint traces of exasperation at his friend's near-constant nonchalance seeping into his tone, prompting the young man to check the clock again.

"I'll be fine" he turns back and proclaims, standing up. He begins to grab various objects strewn about all over his desk; a cell-phone, a key ring, a pocketknife, and an old leather wallet. Turning to his half-amused, half-frustrated friend, the young man asks "How's the weather?"

"Sixty-eight and windy."

The young man nods and turns to grab the dark grey zip-up hoodie he'd had since sixth grade, now draped over his bedpost. Slipping his arms into the garment, the young man dons his weathered raiment with purpose, zipping it up to just below his neckline and pushing back the sleeves. "Anything else I need to know?"

"I'm borrowing your PlayStation for the weekend."

"What the hell for?"

"I'm spending it back home, and I'll need something to occupy myself with while I babysit my younger brother."

"Dick… If your brother breaks my shit, you're paying for the replacement." Throwing a few last-minute additions into a black backpack and placing a pair of headphones over his ears, he strides past the room's other occupant with a brief "Catch ya later", and departs for a class he never suspected he would never reach.

-)(-

The young man dashed across the street, weaving in and out of his fellow pedestrians with the practiced ease of a college student with a bad habit of walking through the classroom door with only seconds to spare, which, if he was being honest with himself, was exactly what he was. He had been running nonstop since he had left his dorm hall five minutes ago, and it was only the fact that he was used to it that allowed his legs to continue propelling him forwards at the rate they were.

 _'After three years of this, one would think I'd have adjusted to having to wake up earlier. But no, apparently I'm doomed to sprint my way across campus every goddamn morning till graduation.'_ the young man lamented, quickly turning into a very large and highly modern building labelled  Horowitz and Levine Engineering Complex, intending to cut through to the other side and shave a bit of time off his commute…

 _'SHIT!'_

…and only _just_ managed to avoid plowing straight into a bunch of bored-looking high-schoolers and their over-enthusiastic college tour guide. Unfortunately, due to the tour guide's apparently smaller-than-average brain and larger-than-deserved sense of self-importance, he had positioned himself on top of a chair in the middle of the hall in order to lecture them about the campus' history and made it so that the group was completely blocking the way forwards in order to trap as many people as possible into listening to him sing the praises of a school that most of them wouldn't even end up attending.

 _'Dammit, get out of the way! I've got a test to get to!'_ The young man narrowed his eyes and silently pled to the assemblage before him that so inconsiderately blocked the path to his current destination. Unable to push through the crowd despite his best efforts, he took a sip of the coffee still in his hand and considered his options.

 _'Okay, we've got a herd of morons blocking the quickest way forward, and Mr. Cult of Personality up there doesn't look too inclined to get a move on. Either I wait for them to get the lead out, or I double back and find a different way.'_

The young man turned to look behind him, as if the echoes of his footsteps would whisper to him the answers he sought. He turned back to look at the mob of high-schoolers in front of him. Nodding to himself, he turned around for a third time, his decision made.

 _'I'm so freaking glad I don't have to deal with high-school anymore'_ the young man thought to himself a minute later as he sped across a grassy courtyard accented with tall and shady trees, famous amongst the students for being the consummate relaxation spot on campus. _'WAAAAY too much drama. I swear, teenagers are the most melodramatic creatures on the face of the planet. The pricks wouldn't know true misfortune if it crawled up their ass and started nibbling on their intestines.'_

His shoes finally hitting concrete once more, the young man continued his one-man marathon to the first class of his day. Glancing at his phone screen to check the time, and seeing that he had less than two minutes remaining before his professor locked the door, he turned up the volume on his headphones, ignored the growing burning sensation in his lungs, and picked up speed.

Had he not done that, he might have heard a voice calling out to him. A young girl's voice, crying out in desperation, pleading for something, _anything_ to answer her prayers.

As it were, the young man was aiming for a small bridge that connected the courtyard area he had just left behind and the dining hall. About eight feet below that bridge laid a straight-shot path to the building he was bound for. Vaulting over the bridge would shave about a minute-and-a-half off his time, and that would be just enough to make it!

Gunning it straight for the edge, his legs pushing him forwards ever faster, a sudden chill made its way down the young man's spine, tingling his whole body for reasons he couldn't fathom. It felt almost as if he were being… _pulled_ towards something. Something located directly in front of him. Shaking off the strange sensation, the young man crouched, jumped, and landed on the railing of the bridge. Pausing for the briefest of moments, he extended his legs forward, once more launching himself into the air in the direction of his target.

Because of this, even when he noticed the hole in space open up in front of him, he was completely helpless to do anything about it.

 _'I don't think I'm gonna make it to that test…'_ was, amusingly, all he had time to think before he plowed right into the oval-shaped spatial anomaly.

A quick flash of green, and the world went dark.

-)(-

Professor Jean Colbert of the Tristain Academy of Magic, better known to some as 'The Flame Snake of Tristain', was not having a good day. First, he'd woken up with a bad crick in his back, providing yet another unwelcome reminder that he wasn't quite as spry as he used to be. Then, he'd accidentally torn a hole in his favorite robe and had to send it away for the academy servants to repair while he left for his workshop. After that, another one of his experiments had literally blown up in his face, ruining his _second_ favorite robe, and led to him missing breakfast. And now, he'd been tasked by Headmaster Osmond to oversee the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual that all the second-years were supposed to complete today.

 _'No rest for the weary it seems,'_ he thought to himself, tiredly running a hand through the remains of a once-full head of hair. He'd gone ahead and gathered all of the children who were to take part in the ritual out into the fields away from the main complex of the Academy, and, after a brief head count, decided that it was high time he got the show on the road.

"All right, as you all know, today is the day you get to summon your familiars. The creature you call forth will be your companion and, hopefully, your friend for as long as you both remain alive. It should also give each of you an idea of what area of magic you should begin focusing on, provided you don't already know what your element is."

Colbert heard a smattering of giggles break out amongst the students at that, catching a few whispered phrases and taunts that he was fairly positive he knew the intended recipient of. Yes, he'd heard the word 'failure' a couple of times, and 'Zero' a few more than that.

He could only sigh. Oh, how he missed working with professionals. Between the deviant, juvenile mannerisms of the headmaster with regards to every female in the school and the young noble children who had never known a day of hardship in their life, it often felt like he was the ringleader of a particularly arrogant circus. He wouldn't give up his teaching job for the world, but back in the day, he wouldn't have wasted any time in showi-

 _'No. Stop right there, Jean. Don't lose yourself in the past. You are not that person anymore.'_

Turning his attention back to his students, Colbert quickly noticed that they had yet to cease their giggling, and that the target of their verbal harrying was quickly losing her composure. Colbert silently amended his previous thoughts, _'Well, I suppose a_ few _of them have known some measure of hardship.'_

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Truly, Colbert's heart went out to this girl. She was of high birth, the daughter of the Duke la Vallière and Duchess Karin Desiree la Vallière (also known as The Heavy Wind of Tristain, though only a select few people were privy to that knowledge), and was herself something like third in line for the throne if he recalled correctly. She was of slight build and sharp mind, absorbing knowledge like a sponge, and quickly became one of the top students in her year in all of her theoretical subjects, second only to Miss Tabitha. She was promising in a way few others were, the kind of student most educators would happily give their pension to instruct. There was just one problem.

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière was a complete failure in all practical aspects of magic; she couldn't cast even a single spell. Be it a small heating enchantment or a minor air current alteration charm, every attempt to actually channel her willpower into a spell always resulted in the exact same thing: an explosion.

The teachers of the academy had tried everything they could. Potions, hypnosis, scanning spells, mental compulsions, a variety of different spellwork catalysts, all four elements, spells of different geometric levels; hell, Colbert himself had personally torn through the school library to find some sort of indication of what was wrong with the young Miss Vallière's spellcasting, only to come up empty-handed.

The teachers were at a loss on how to help the poor girl, and that was when her peers, being the immature children they were, decided that there was only one logical explanation for Louise's inability to cast even the most rudimentary of spells; that she was incapable of magic in the first place. And that was when the taunting started.

Colbert and the rest of the staff had been forced to watch as the children of the Academy slowly turned a young girl, who just wanted to learn the magic that her family prided itself on, into a withdrawn, mistrustful, and emotionally volatile social outcast. Somewhere along the line, someone had referred to her as a 'zero', and the nickname had unfortunately stuck. From that day forward, Louise the Zero had been tormented by almost every student on campus for her destructive mistakes. Among the faculty, it was particularly vexing for Jean himself, as he could sympathize with the young girl's plight. For decades, he had been searching to find a non-destructive outlet for fire magic, a way to improve society with his element instead of only burning things to the ground with it. Everyone he shared his desires with scoffed at the idea, too set in their ways to understand the need for revolutionary change within the realm of the thaumaturgical arts, telling him that he'd embarked on a fool's quest and that he'd never succeed. He hadn't listened to them, and continued to experiment with his magic, only to fail over and over and over again. He may not have experienced anywhere near the depth of abuse the young Miss Vallière had for his troubles, but it was still a personal failing that constantly ate away at him.

Clearing his throat and gesturing to the field in front of him, partially to chase away the depressing train of thought and partially to restore order amongst his charges, Colbert continued with the class. "Quiet down now. As you can see, the runic circle has already been prepared for you. All you have to do is recite the incantation and invoke the summoning. Are there any volunteers?"

One by one, the students stepped forward and took their turn at the summoning circle. A quick incantation, the wave of a wand or staff, a flash of light, and a new creature would be added to what was beginning to look like a small zoo located on campus grounds. All manner of dogs, cats, amphibians, birds, lizards, a few larger animals such as bears and a fire salamander, a giant mole, and even a dragon were added to the group, excitedly taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of being summoned to serve as the companion of a mage-in-training.

"Very good, Miss Aubade, it isn't every day that someone manages to summon and contract a bugbear." Colbert happily complimented a young freckled girl who couldn't decide whether she thought the giant floating eyeball in front of her was adorable or repulsive. "All that leaves is…" the professor began, looking over the crowd in front of him, a feeling of resigned dread settling into his stomach, "Miss Vallière."

"What's the point? She's not going to summon anything."

A chorus of agreement met the outburst, and the young Miss Vallière could hold her peace no longer.

"Shut up, Zerbst!" she screeched, turning to face her classmate with a glare of pure loathing. "I'll summon a familiar! I'll summon one _way_ better than yours!"

"That would certainly be a sight to see," responded the tall, buxom girl with tanned skin and hair the color of embers that flowed down to her back like a river of fire. "But that would require you actually succeeding in performing the summoning in the first place. Are you sure you're up to the task?"

Louise gulped at that, showing everyone just how nervous she really was. Forcing what might have passed for a confidant smile, if you were squinting, onto her face, she nodded. "Of course I am! Just you watch!"

Colbert did just that as the young girl slowly made her way over to the summoning circle, stopping at the edge and gulping once more. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help her through this. She would either successfully perform the summoning and bind her familiar like everyone else, or…

Well, they'd cross that bridge if they came to it.

 _'No rest for the weary indeed.'_

-)(-

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière was not nervous. No, she wasn't nervous at all.

She was _absolutely terrified_.

Slowly making her way towards the summoning circle, she spent the time she had remaining trying to convince herself that rising to Zerbst's bait wasn't the most horrible mistake of her life. _'Why did I do that!? I knew she was trying to get a rise out of me, and I lashed out anyway!_ _How am I going to summon something more impressive that a four-foot tall fire salamander?'_

Shaking her head in an attempt to rid herself of the butterfly colony that had erupted within her stomach, Louise unsuccessfully tried to stamp down the creeping dread that all she'd end up producing is another of the explosions that had plagued her life for as long as she could remember.

 _'Okay Louise, don't panic. I repeat, do_ not _panic_. _You can do this. You're one of the top students in your year, and you spent all last night memorizing and practicing the ritual incantation. You_ can _do this. So what if this is your last chance to not screw up? So what if you'll probably get kicked out of the Academy if you fail? So what if Mother will disown you and you'll have to live the rest of your life among the commoners if you don- GYAAAAAH THIS ISN'T HELPING!'_

Noticing that she had finally reached the edge of the summoning circle, Louise gulped, trying to remove the solid block of anxiety that had decided to take up residence in the back of her throat. A slight breeze blew through her strawberry-blonde hair, and she took a deep breath in preparation for the ordeal ahead.

 _'You can do this, you can do this, you can do this…'_

She stood ramrod straight and gestured with her wand at the circle before her.

 _'Here goes everything…'_

"Pentagon of the five elemental powers, heed my summoning and bring forth my familiar!"

A spark. That was all she got for her efforts. The summoning circle emitted a faint glow and a small spark of magic, and then promptly died out.

Louise was in a daze, the anticlimactic end to such a torturous buildup leaving her feeling like she'd been slapped. What had just happened? Normally when she attempted magic she at least got a reaction. Granted, that reaction always took the form of an explosion, but this? This was nothing! Nothing at all! An explosion would have been _preferable_ to the absolute lack of anything to show for whatsoever! Had she somehow gotten even _worse_ at magic than she had been before?

 _'No, no that can't be. I must have messed up the incantation. Yes! That has to be it!'_

Ignoring the amused whispers of her fellow classmates, Louise turned to the professor who had been overseeing the proceedings with a desperate gaze.

"Professor Colbert! Please allow me to try the summoning again!"

To his credit, the professor neither sighed nor cringed when faced with the manic determination of his pupil to prove to everyone that she was not a complete failure. He simply gave a small nod.

"Of course, Louise. Not everyone gets it on the first try. Go ahead and give it another go."

Nodding back in thanks, she returned her focus to the circle etched into the ground in front of her. Taking another breath, she tried the incantation again.

"PENTAGON OF THE FIVE ELEMENTAL POWERS, HEED MY SUMMONING AND BRING FORTH MY FAMILIAR!"

Again, nothing appeared before her. Sinking to her knees, despair rushed in to fill the void left behind by her emotional high.

"No…"

This couldn't be. She was Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière! She was the Heavy Wind's daughter for Founder's sake! But apparently the universe didn't care about that. If anything, it only mocked her feeble attempts to prove herself worthy in the eyes of her peers.

"No, no, no…"

With a pained cry of desperation, she attempted the summoning again.

 ** _"PENTAGON OF THE FIVE ELEMENTAL POWERS, HEED MY SUMMONING AND BRING FORTH MY FAMILIAR!"_**

…

…

…

Nothing.

Again… nothing.

"NO!"

Louise attempted to summon her familiar three more times after that, to no avail. The tears were freely leaking from her eyes now, tracking their way in rivulets down her pale face, small sobs escaping from her throat as she tried and tried and tried and failed _and_ _failed **and FAILED**_.

No-one said a word. Professor Colbert could only watch on as Louise kneeled in agony, unable to afford the emotionally damaged girl any sympathy that wouldn't ring hollow. Many of the students had turned away, the situation having long since crossed the line from funny to awkward, and rapidly approaching the territory of 'I can't watch this anymore'.

There were no words for what Louise felt. It was a horrible amalgamation of pain and despair and guilt and terror and disappointment that writhed inside her and made her want to throw up, to tear her hair out, to ball herself up on the ground and cry until the world grew tired of her inability to do ANYTHING right and simply ended her miserable existence.

This was it. She had been given her chance, and she had blown it sky high, in front of everyone.

It was all over. That was what she thought.

Then, The Words came to her.

She had no idea where they came from, or whether or not they would work. After all, unorthodox incantations tended to yield highly unpredictable results.

But they were _her_ words, she knew that much. They were _her_ words.

And they would be spoken.

After all, what else did she have to lose?

"I beg of you, my slave who exists somewhere in the Universe!" she began, her tears still falling, trying to fit into her words every drop of the emotional turmoil that she had experienced, that had battered her resolution like the waves of a vast ocean, "Oh sacred, beautiful, and strong familiar spirit! I desire, and here I plead from the depths of my heart!"

There was power in these words. She could feel it buzzing beneath her skin, a curious sensation that reminded her of the lightning her one-time fiancé was so famous for.

She took a deep breath, and her words resounded through the air.

"ANSWER TO MY GUIDANCE!"

Louise completed the aria and, for a brief moment, nothing happened.

Then the summoning circle began to glow.

Then it began to _shine_.

White bolts of coruscating magical energy flung themselves from the circle, dancing through the air and crisscrossing over each other like a miniature lightning storm that sent Louise's classmates running in fear, as all the while the circle grew brighter and brighter until, finally, the world was engulfed in light.

-)(-

The young man stood up in an empty void and frowned.

 _'What. The. Hell.'_

Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but infinite blackness stretching out in every direction.

"Am I dead?" he questioned aloud, hoping (but also kind of dreading) that something would answer back. He received no response.

Deciding to check his surroundings more thoroughly before casting aspersions on the status of his mortality, the young man trained his bright green eyes on the landscape engulfing him.

Up? Absolute darkness.

Left? Never-ending void.

Right? A complete vacuum of solid black.

Down? Not a goddamn thing.

 _'Wait, what am I even standing on?'_

Stomping his feet a few times and confirming that, yes the bottoms of his shoes were making contact with some sort of glassy black surface that served as a floor in this… space… he went back to pondering the abyss into which he had unintentionally leapt.

*siiiiiiiiiigh* "If I'm about to get attacked by the Four Kings, I'm gonna be _so_ pissed."

A bright white light pulled him from his musings, demanding his attention. Turning around to face the aberration in the dark around him, his brow slowly crept up his forehead.

"Now isn't that convenient."

Contemplating the choice before him (for he easily recognized it for what it was), the young man started listing the pros and cons of his options.

 _'Alright, Infinite Void vs. Complete Unknown. Either I stay here until I go insane with boredom, or I venture forth into a situation I'm probably horribly unprepared for. What to do?'_ he silently pondered. Raising a hand to cup his chin in a pose of deep contemplation, the young man couldn't help but think that the light would lead to the better outcome in this instance.

 _'I know they always tell you not to move towards the light, but if this inky eternity really is proof that I've already gone and kicked the bucket, then wouldn't a white light symbolize the Gates of Saint Peter and the entrance to Heaven?'_

He supposed that the endless nothing around him could pass for a decent Purgatory if it so desired. Though, if Purgatory was this depressing, he _really_ didn't want to see Hell.

 _'And if that's true, does this mean the Abrahamic faiths were right all along?'_

Looking up to find that the white light had grown bigger and brighter in the time he had been thinking, he hesitated for just a brief moment before a small smirk made its way onto his face.

 _'Only one way to find out.'_

The young man boldly made his way forward, into the unknown, and the world was engulfed in light.

-)(-

 _Yes sometimes, on very rare occasions, the most extraordinary things will happen to the most ordinary of people. People who don't have unique skillsets, weighty destinies, or powerful bloodlines to fall back on. So instead, they do something else._

 _They improvise._

 _And THAT is when things get interesting._


	2. Of Summonings and Smartasses

**Chapter 1: Of Summonings and Smartasses**

The first thing he registered was pain. The second was the notion that, if he was feeling pain, then he most likely wasn't dead. Probably.

The third was that, whatever had been on the other side of that white light, it had promptly greeted him with an explosion to the face.

"Owwwwwww…"

Upon resuming consciousness, the young man found himself lying in a crater, a cloud of dust, dirt, and various other debris blowing through the air and, unfortunately, into his lungs.

Violently coughing and hacking up the foreign material he had unwittingly inhaled, he gripped his aching head and slowly tried to stand up, keyword being 'tried'. All he really managed to do was get to his feet and drunkenly wobble in place, hunched over and woozy from transit to wherever _here_ was, before finally losing his brief scuffle with that bitch Gravity and falling backwards on his ass.

Temporarily giving up on the idea of embarrassing himself further with repeated attempts at vertical motion, he took the time to put his slowly returning lucidity to work and studied the vaguely humanoid figures he was only just starting to be able to make out through the thinning dust cloud. There seemed to be a lot of yelling going on in…

 _'Wait a minute, is that French?'_

Taking a moment to pick out a few choice snippets of the heated conversation happening beyond the thin veil of airborne explosive residue, he quickly came to the conclusion that, whatever they were speaking, it sounded a hell of a lot like French.

Unfortunately, the young man didn't speak French. English was his native tongue, and he was fluent in both Spanish and German, could curse you out in Russian, and even knew enough Arabic to get himself to an embassy. But French? Not a lick.

This left the young man in a somewhat difficult position- assuming French was the only language they knew, he had no way to communicate with the locals and, therefore, no way to find out where he was.

Deciding to once more try his hand at the act of getting his feet underneath him, the young man repositioned his backpack and slowly rose into a kneeling position, waiting for the dizziness to pass, before standing the rest of the way up to better observe his surroundings.

Looking off to his left, he noticed a huge forest comprised of mostly tall trees and leafy shrubs, none of which looked native to the temperate environment from which he had been pulled. The forest continued for a ways, and his eyes quickly caught sight of what appeared to be a huge walled-in complex of some sort. It had tall towers and sweeping archways that reminded him of the medieval castles he used to read about in books as a kid.

"Where the hell am I, Narnia?" the young man questioned to himself, slowly bringing his focus around to the people that surrounded him. A moderately sized group of what appeared to be schoolchildren in uniforms consisting of white, long-sleeved button-up shirts, dark greyish slacks for the boys and skirts for the girls, and some sort of black cloak or cape affixed around their necks by a golden brooch embossed with a pentagram. As he took in the sight, he realized that every single one of them seemed to be accompanied by some sort of animal. He saw a few different birds, a couple dogs, a suspiciously large mole, a frog, a snake here and there, a great big-

 _'JESUS TAPDANCING CHRIST, IS THAT A FUCKING DRAGON!?'_

Zeroing in on the gargantuan creature, he was able to make out a veritable wall of cerulean scales that rippled over muscles that looked as if they could easily tear a man in two. It was about the size of a small school bus, with two large wings folded into its sides, and a serpentine head with a maw full of flesh rending, muscle tearing, bone smashing fangs the size of his fingers. Looking around once more, he began to notice a few of the more… _unusual_ creatures that his brain had simply skimmed over. There was a giant floating eyeball, a wolf the size of a bear, a hydra, and something that the young man had to convince himself was _not_ a Charmeleon.

It was unreal. Absolutely unreal. Maybe Narnia hadn't been too far off the mark after all?

It was then that he took notice of the fact that one of the children was much closer to him than the others, and that she was attempting to speak with him. Turning to face the one kneeling in front of him, he stopped upon catching sight of her.

The first thing he noticed about her was that she was small. As in 'downright petite' small. She had reddish-brown eyes, like burnt amber, and waist-length hair so strawberry-blonde that it could easily have passed for pink in the right light. The fair skin of her small, heart-shaped face was stained with tears, and she looked at him with wide eyes, as if his presence was just as much a mystery to her as it was to him.

All in all, she looked so pathetic and sad that it made him want to just scoop her up in a big hug and tell her that everything was going to be okay, that the world still had some kindness in it, and that nothing was going to hurt her anymore. He settled for just staring back at her, neither of them fully equipped to break the silent stalemate they found themselves in. The moment passed when one of the other kids called something out to her, and suddenly the vulnerable-looking little girl before him was replaced by an angry glare and a snarl.

Exchanging heated words with a tanned redhead of… _generous_ proportions, the young blonde in front of him quickly became flustered over something, stumbling over her words and causing the other children to burst out into laughter. They started throwing what were obviously jeers by the tone of voice, and pointing at the both of them as if they were carnival attractions.

The young man wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but they were definitely laughing at him.

Only people he liked were allowed to laugh at him.

Turning to address the assembly at large, the young man cleared his throat and spoke, "I think that's _quite_ enough of that. Now, is there anyone here who speaks English? I'd like to know what's going on here."

He wasn't sure if it was what he said or how he said it, but the laughing quickly petered out, all eyes turning to face him. He was starting to feel like a bug under a microscope, so he cleared his throat and restated his question.

"Anyone at all speak English? No? What about Spanish? ¿Alguien habla Español?"

The lack of comprehension plastered on all of their faces was enough for him to realize that, wherever he was, it was very, very, _very_ far from home.

He wasn't in Kansas anymore, as he believed the saying went.

Giving verbal communication up as a lost cause, he returned his attention back to the young blonde girl in front of him. Noting that she was still kneeling on the ground, he reached out a hand to help her up, which, after a brief moment and a narrowing of her eyes, she took.

Standing up, she quickly let go of his hand and turned to face someone he hadn't noticed before- he appeared to be middle aged and balding, wearing a black robe and carrying a strange walking stick that resembled a magic staff more than anything else.

 _'I really hope I haven't been kidnapped by a group of French cosplayers…'_

The blonde seemed to ask the man a question, a question that he answered in the negative, if the shaking of his head was anything to go by. A few more exchanged words between the two, and the blonde sighed. Turning back to face the young man, she looked up into his eyes with a mixture of defiance and embarrassment. A small blush crept onto her face as she whipped out an honest-to-God _magic wand_ , spoke briefly, and tapped him on the head.

All of this was, of course, very confusing to the young man. He had been running to class when he accidentally jumped straight into some sort of wormhole that took him to a strange land where everyone spoke French. He was tired, disoriented, still slightly hung over, and more than a little baffled by the turn for the strange that his life had seemingly taken.

But he was no fool. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He had spent the vast majority of his life playing video games, reading fantasy novels, and watching all kinds of anime, movies, television shows, and the like. And as such, he recognized a magic ritual when he saw one. Which is why, when the young blonde girl in front of him took a step forward, grabbed his collar, and puckered her lips, he instantly reacted by pushing her away and jumping backwards a good meter or so.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell do you think you're doing? I never agreed to anything!"

Normally, believing in magic would be something that a child would grow out of at a relatively young age, and the young man was no exception. He had long since made peace with the fact that wandering knights and trapped princesses and evil warlocks were nothing but pure fantasy, that the stories he so loved as a child were just that: stories.

However, one of humanity's greatest strengths is its ability to adapt to almost any given situation. The young man knew that magic wasn't real, and that 'magic rituals' were nothing but flights of narrative fancy. However, he also knew that wormholes and dragons weren't real either. And he'd already seen both of those today, with his own two eyes no less. Which brings us to another of humanity's greatest strengths- its ability to recognize patterns. The young man understood that if wormholes and dragons could be real, despite all he thought he knew, then it stood to reason that magic and magic rituals could be real too. Either way, it was better to be safe than sorry, right?

At the very least, he didn't want to kiss someone he didn't know, and who looked to be about seven or eight years younger him.

Thrown off balance by his less-than-favorable reaction to her attempts at a spontaneous make-out session, the blonde girl nearly lost her balance and had to pinwheel her arms through the air to regain her stability. Once she had, she looked up at the young green-eyed man in front of her with a frosty glare, barking out more unintelligible words at him. She angrily stomped her way over to him, arms outstretched to grab hold of him again.

The young man sighed and simply placed his palm on her forehead, preventing her from getting within her arm's reach, causing her to violently thrash about in an attempt to get to him and causing the onlooking crowd to burst out into laughter once more.

"It's not gonna happen, blondie. Whatever you're trying to accomplish here, I didn't sign up for it."

Finally giving up her endeavors to get past the stalwart aegis of the young man's outstretched hand, the girl screamed in frustration and turned to the man in the black robe, quickly firing off a rapid staccato of angry French. The man 'hmm'd to himself, then began to wave his walking stick/ Staff of Arcane Might +2/ _whatever_ it was before gesturing with it at the young man.

The target of said gesture was all set to start dodging Magic Missiles, but nothing actually happened other than a slight breeze blowing across his face.

"Is that better?"

Okay, so maybe _something_ happened.

"Yes, actually…" the young man slowly disengaged himself from the blonde spitfire and turned to give his full attention to the robed man. "Who are you, and what did you do?"

"I am Jean Colbert, a teacher at the Tristain Academy of Magic, and it was just a simple translation spell." the robed man, now identified as Colbert, said with a straight face. "It's nothing too impressive, but it should allow for verbal communication at the very least. What language were you speaking by the way? I've never heard your dialect before."

The young man shrugged, "English, primarily. A little Spanish to see if any of you recognized it." Then the man's exact words hit him with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. "Wait a minute, did you just say 'magic' and 'spell'?"

"Yes, why?"

"…no reason…"

The young man's brain was on overclock, trying to process the implications of the older man's words. Magic was real. _Magic_ was _real_. Only once before had three simple words so thoroughly rocked him to his core.

 _'Okay, time to review: I fell through a magic portal to what might be another world, and am now standing in front of a goddamn real-life wizard. A group of what are most likely student mages is also present, along with a collection of fantastic creatures and a magic school located in a castle in the woods where-'_

His thoughts screamed to a halt as he came to the realization that he wasn't in Narnia at all.

No. Instead, he'd been unceremoniously dropped into the middle of _Harry fucking Potter_.

The assembled group gave a start of surprise when the young man that had appeared before them so abruptly began to laugh like a madman who'd just been told the world's funniest joke by the greatest comedian who'd ever lived. Tears of mirth rolled down his face at the sheer absurdity of the situation he found himself in, and he doubled over, clutching his stomach and gasping for breath as his guffaws only increased in volume and intensity as they continued.

At least until the blonde girl standing next to him ran out of patience, surprise-tackled him to the ground, and locked her lips to his.

It lasted for only a brief moment, as the young man quickly regained his wits and pushed her off of him.

"Oi! Get off of me you lunatic! Bad touch, bad touch!"

"What did you just call me!?" she screeched in return, looking for all the world as if _she_ was the one with every right to act affronted.

"You heard me you little- GYAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The young man could only scream as whatever the girl had done quickly began to take effect. Molten magma flowed through his veins, immolating his nerves and burning him alive from the inside out. His muscles spasmed repeatedly and uncontrollably, every twitch only serving to intensify what was already the most painful thing he'd ever experienced. The heat slowly began to siphon away from most of his body, gathering in the back of his left hand and opening his skin in an unfamiliar pattern that left him cradling his smoking limb, struggling not to black out from the trauma.

As the pain eventually began to recede, Professor Colbert approached the young man and began inspecting the markings that now stood out against his skin like scars.

"Interesting…I've never seen this runic style before…" the professor muttered to himself, before taking out a small notebook and piece of charcoal from within his robes and copying down the symbols for future reference. Upon completion, he stood up and faced the blonde girl, a proud smile on his face.

"Regardless, congratulations Miss Vallière! It may have taken you seven tries to successfully summon a familiar, but you managed 'Bind Servant' on your first attempt. You've officially completed the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual."

"Even I can manage to get things right sometimes…" she mumbled in response, a small blush of embarrassment dusting her drying cheeks.

"I don't know about that, Vallière. I mean really, what made you think summoning a commoner was a good idea?"

The Vallière girl turned to the tanned redhead with a scowl, "Quiet Zerbst, at least I summoned something!"

Turning back to the young man in front of her, the petite mage began her questioning of the strangely dressed figure.

"Who are you anyway?"

The young man himself barely heard her. Still recovering from the mind-numbing agony of being magically branded, his disjointed thoughts only served to lead him in circles around her inquiry.

 _'Who…am I… Who am…I? Name. I have a name. That's what she wants. My name. She wants to know who I am… She wants my name.'_

 _'I can't tell her my name.'_

As clarity returned to his mind, he realized that handing over his name might very well be providing her with magical leverage over himself. He couldn't count how many times he'd encountered a fictional setting where one of the underlying fundaments of magic was that 'Names Have Power'. No, he couldn't tell her his name. At least, not his _real_ name.

And now he was contemplating giving the teenager a fake name so that she couldn't magically steal away his soul. Where had he gone wrong? He had never asked for this!

 _'Wait a minute… I suppose that could work…'_

"Hey! Are you listening to me?"

"…Adam…"

"Huh?" the blonde looked up quizzically, not having expected to receive a coherent statement from the strange boy after so many failed attempts at eliciting a response.

"You can call me 'Adam'. Is that alright?"

"Adam what?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest in irritation.

"Just 'Adam' will do for now. And _you_ are?"

At that, the blonde grew a haughty smirk and turned her nose up in the way only those who had been born into wealth and power could.

"My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, third daughter of the Duke and Duchess la Vallière of Tristain, and I am your new master."

"Riiiiiiiight…" turning away from the delusional Vallière girl, Adam addressed the only person present who seemed to be in a position of authority.

"Professor, you said this was a school, right?"

"Yes, that's correct." the robed man nodded.

"Excellent. In that case, is there a Headmaster or Principal I can speak with? Board of Directors maybe? Dean of Students or Public Relations? Anything of that nature?"

The professor was slightly bemused by the request. Why would this young commoner wish to speak to the Headmaster?

"Yes we do, but I have to ask- why do you wish to meet with the Headmaster of this school?"

Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, Adam replied- "There are a few questions about my situation that I'd like answered. Nothing major, just want to clear a few things up."

Nodding at that, Colbert acquiesced. Turning to face the students that had watched the proceedings with no small amount of amusement, he announced- "For the rest of you, congratulations to you all for successfully completing the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual. Class is dismissed."

As the rest of the class began casting levitation spells to quickly return to the Academy grounds, the professor turned back to the remaining couple, only to find the young man who called himself Adam staring gobsmacked at the retreating forms of the students and the young Vallière angrily berating him for ignoring his master.

Shaking his head, Jean Colbert could only sigh at the day he'd had, and would most likely continue having.

"Well, come along then. Classes are over for the day, so I can bring you to see the Headmaster immediately if you'd like."

Tearing his attention away from the students who could apparently just _'Wingardium Leviosa'_ themselves over the Academy walls, Adam cleared his throat.

" _Ah-herm_ , yes that would be wonderful. Thank you."

Starting after the professor, Adam walked about twenty feet before realizing that they were short a party member.

Looking back and finding the blonde girl ( _'Louise'_ he silently corrected himself) still growling at his continued flippancy, he called out to her, "You coming or not?"

After grumbling to herself for a few more moments, Adam watched as Louise finally succeeded in temporarily suppressing her controlling nature, gave a small 'hmph', and started after them, quickly passing him by without sparing even a glance.

-)(-

Louise was having a very difficult time deciding on how she should be feeling right now. The summoning ritual had been a complete debacle, and had ended up with her in tears, trying over and over and over again to summon her familiar as the rest of her class watched on.

She had thought it was the end. And it had been, until that weird incantation wormed its way into her head.

Looking back, she still couldn't figure out where it had come from. She had never heard anything like it before, but it felt distinctly… familiar (no pun intended), as if on some level she had _always_ known it. It was baffling, really.

As the group made its way toward the headmaster's office, the young blonde turned to look up at the source of her current conflicting feelings. The bright green eyes of her familiar hadn't stopped moving since they had entered the Academy, trying to take in every single detail of the architecture, furnishings, and inhabitants they passed.

Honestly, she was glad to have actually succeeded in summoning something, even if it was nothing but a commoner. Louise would never admit it to anyone but herself, but Kirche's ribbing had cut far deeper than the contemptible Germanian harlot probably knew. She had been genuinely terrified of the prospect of failing the summoning and being expelled from not only the Academy, but her family as well. Regardless of how many times Professor Colbert had tried to convince her that that wouldn't happen, Louise knew that her mother would never accept a failure of that level.

Not for the first time, Louise silently cursed the 'Rule of Steel' that her mother lived and breathed.

But that was all a moot point now, seeing as she had successfully completed the summoning, albeit with a little help, and bound her familiar to her service.

A scowl formed on her face as she recalled the way her familiar had acted during the process. She had been all ready to seal the deal (with her first kiss no less!), and how did that ungrateful plebian repay her? By nearly pushing her to the ground and yelling at her in strange tongues! And to make matters worse, he had embarrassed her even further when she went in for a second attempt. She'd had to ask Professor Colbert if he could perform a translation spell just so that she could communicate with him and tell him to HOLD STILL!

But then _he'd_ been the one that spoke up, asking predictable questions like 'who are you' and 'what was that'. But the weirdest part had been when he'd started laughing. She had never seen anyone laugh so hard before in her life, and she'd started to worry that she'd summoned a crazy person for a familiar when she realized that she had the perfect opportunity to complete the contract, now that he was distracted by what was apparently the funniest thing ever.

So she'd jumped him, briefly locking their lips together to enact the 'Bind Servant' spell, and once again he'd reacted by forcibly shoving her away. Then he'd called her a lunatic! The nerve!

But none of that mattered, because she'd done it! She'd summoned a familiar and even bound him on the first try! So what if summoning a commoner was unheard of? The runes inscribed on the back of his left hand _proved_ that she had summoned him, and by extension, that she _was_ capable of magic after all.

After giving it some thought, she came to the conclusion that, when compared to the agonizing she had done over that very subject in the past, the price of a somewhat unruly familiar was inconsequential.

After all, they'd have plenty of time to work on obedience in the future.

-)(-

Like his petite master, Adam was also having a rather difficult time. His problem however, was deciding on what he should be looking at.

Everywhere his eyes roamed there was something new and incredible to witness. When he looked up, he was treated to a view of beautiful vaulted ceilings and crown molding that looked like something he'd find in the ancient churches of Rome. When he looked left and right, he was treated to the breathtaking views of the countryside surrounding the Academy afforded by the floor-to-ceiling windows, accented beautifully by elegant vases and other knickknacks of surpassing quality. All around him, students went about their day, some of them lost in their schoolwork and walking with their nose in a book, while others socialized in the way that teenagers are wont to do in the hallway after classes.

All in all, it was like something out of a fairytale; colorful characters and incredible sights everywhere you cared to look. And now he was living in it.

So engrossed was he in the splendor of his environment, Adam never heard Professor Colbert announce that they had arrived at the headmaster's office, and nearly plowed right into the man when he stopped in front of an impressively sized wooden door.

Adam wasn't exactly sure what he was expecting from the headmaster of a real-life magic school. The only template he had to draw from was the 'old and wizened sage' character archetype; someone along the lines of Dumbledore and Gandalf, with a massive beard and crooked staff of unfathomable arcane might. Which is why he nearly choked upon sighting the attractive woman in the form-fitting outfit working her way through a stack of papers.

She was young, appearing only a few years older than himself at the most, with mint-green hair tied back in a ponytail, teal eyes, and half-rim glasses. Adam watched as she looked over various forms of some kind, nodding to herself every few seconds, before scrawling something on a notepad and moving on to the next item of interest.

This was the headmaster? He knew he shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but he couldn't help but feel that someone with a little more worldly experience would've been just a tad bit more qualified for the position.

Then again, Magic. The hell did he know anyway?

He cleared his throat, and the woman looked up to discover she was no longer alone.

"A pleasure to meet you ma'am, my name is Adam. I was just recently summoned here by your 'familiar ritual' and, while I realize you must be very busy with your duties as headmaster, I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me."

Respectful and polite, yet straight to the point. As far as opening statements went, Adam had definitely heard worse. Unfortunately, the woman only stared back at him, cocking her head to the side in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Oh! Heh heh, I'm afraid that isn't the headmaster. That's the headmaster's secretary, Miss Longueville. The headmaster is over there." Colbert explained, gesturing towards another, larger desk at the back of the room as Louise snickered to herself at the young man's blunder. And at that desk, sat an old and wizened man in a black cloak with a crooked staff and the most _righteous_ facial hair Adam had ever laid eyes on.

"Yeah, that looks about right." He intoned with a sigh, somewhat disappointed with the real headmaster's predictably clichéd appearance, before turning back to the woman in front of him. "Sorry about the interruption."

"Yeah, no problem…" Ms. Longueville returned with an amused smile, giving him the once-over before turning her attention back to her papers.

As the group approached the larger desk, the headmaster spoke up, pausing in the act of smoking his pipe and stroking his beard.

"I see our young Miss Vallière has successfully completed the Ritual. Congratulations." he offered to the young mage who nodded in thanks. "But who might your young companion be? I don't believe I've ever seen that style of clothing before…"

"It's called a hoodie, and it's generally worn during the winter months as minor protection against slight wind and moderately cold temperatures." the young man explained, approaching the older man. "My name is Adam. It's a pleasure to meet you, Headmaster."

"Oh-hoh, what a formal young man you are. Feel free to call me Old Osmond, everyone else does." the aged wizard says with a sly grin, causing Adam to silently give thanks that the old man wouldn't stand on ceremony. "What can I do for you, my boy?"

"I'll be blunt. Louise here summoned me during that ritual thing you had the kids doing, I've got questions, and you're my best bet for answers."

Old Osmond smiled and spread his hands out into the air at his sides, "Then by all means, ask away! Never let it be said that I stood in the way of youngsters in search of knowledge."

"Alright, question number one: Where am I?"

"You are currently in the Headmaster's Office of the Tristain Academy of Magic."

"And Tristain is…? A province of some sort? A country? A continent?"

Old Osmond raised his brow at that, "A country, one of the four Brimiric Nations on the continent of Halkeginia."

"Brimiric Nations?"

"Albion, Gallia, Tristain, and Romalia. I must confess I find it difficult to believe that you've never heard of any of them. Unless you came from the far East?"

Adam shook his head in the negative. "No. In fact, the more I hear, the more certain I am that I'm not from this world at all."

"What are you talking about? There's no such thing as other worlds." Louise spoke up, deciding she'd had enough of remaining silent. "I don't know who told you there was, but you've obviously been lied to."

Turning to face the young mage, Adam couldn't help but chuckle. Not exactly the most open-minded person was she? But then again, he supposed it _was_ a pretty outlandish claim. Oh wait, no it wasn't. They had freaking MAGIC!

"Oh? What makes you so sure that other worlds don't exist?"

"Well… what makes _you_ so sure they _do_?"

Again, he couldn't help but chuckle. "Louise, my world has been circumnavigated countless times, and by countless people. We have technology that allows us to communicate with anyone on the planet, regardless of where they are. I took a geography course one time." he began listing off evidence to support his claim, Colbert seeming to take an interest in his mention of phones, Osmond's face inscrutable under the cascading waves of glorious beard.

"The point is, there is no such place as Tristain, or even Halkeginia back where I come from. That leaves us with two possibilities that I can see: either this world and my world are the same and just exist within different timelines, or they're two completely different worlds." Adam leaned back in the seat he'd taken while they were talking as he counted the points on his fingers. "I'll admit that the former is a possibility, but I think the latter is the more likely scenario."

Old Osmond interrupted at that, "And what leads you to believe that different worlds is the more likely scenario?"

"Simple. In my world, there is no such thing as magic."

Louise's jaw dropped.

"Bwuh…but…wha…how do you…who is…"

"Breathe, Louise. And please speak in complete sentences."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC!?"

"Jeez, stop shouting. And I thought it was pretty self-explanatory. In my world, magic exists strictly within the realms of fiction."

"Then how do you determine who belongs to the nobility if not with magic!?"

"Elementary, my dear Louise. We don't."

Adam didn't think it was possible for Louise to look any more bewildered than she already had, but now he could swear he saw anime spirals in her eyes. Interesting effect, that.

But apparently the explanation wasn't over, as now Colbert was the one with questions. He'd taken out his small notebook and charcoal at some point and apparently had been furiously copying down the entire conversation.

"Alright then, but if your world has no formal noble class, then how does your society function on a day to day basis? What system of government do you use? Is status determined by wealth instead of blood?"

"In order, everyone just tries to get along with one-another, my country of origin functions as a democratic-republic with popularly elected leaders, and yeah, pretty much. The more money you have, the better stuff you can buy. That's the closest you'll get to a noble class in the States."

"Fascinating! Popularly elected leaders, you said?"

Well, _technically_ not always, but nobody actually knows how the Electoral College works. Better to keep it simple for the man.

"Yeah. My home country, the United States of America, is comprised of fifty individual, self-governing provinces, or States as we call them, which are all overseen by a federal government, which itself is divided into three branches. The Legislative Branch consists of a Senate which receives two elected public representatives from each state and a House of Representatives where representation positively correlates with State population. This branch is in charge of making, passing, and changing various laws. The Executive Branch is headed by the popularly elected President of the United States, who functions as the Commander-in-Chief of the nation's military, and his cabinet of appointed advisors. It's the Executive Branch's job to make sure that all the laws that the Legislative Branch passes are carried out and followed by the general populace."

Colbert's charcoal bit flew across the page of his notebook, scribbling line after line after line of information. It seems the man was every bit the hardcore academic that he appeared.

"And the third branch?"

"WHO CARES?" Louise broke in, shouting once more in what Adam could only assume was some sort of misguided attempt to be relevant to the conversation. "Why would anyone want their country to be run so confusingly? Our system of nobility is simple and refined, something a commoner like you apparently cannot understand!"

"Yeeeeeeeah," he began, rolling his eyes at the blonde's naivety, "Too bad that's literally one of the worst ways to run a country, much less an entire continent if I'm picking up on the subtext right."

Louise squawked in indignation at the implication that their precious nobility was anything less than perfect. Clearly she'd been indoctrinated to believe that mages were inherently better than the non-magical folk.

 _'Time to rock her worldview a bit'_

"You're supposed to give power to those best suited for it, so that you end up with a fair, just rule. If you give all the power to the people with the flashiest abilities, then you just end up with a government full of corruption, nepotism, tyrants, and assholes in general."

"But that's…

"We used to have a similar noble/ commoner social stratification in a country named France back in my world. Wanna know what happened?"

Without even giving Louise the chance to respond, he answered his own question for her.

"The French Revolution happened. The commoners all got tired of the nobles abusing their power and ended up beheading them all."

The young girl blanched at the thought of such a violent act, while Old Osmond gave a hearty laugh at the young man's candidness.

Turning back to Colbert, Adam continued his brief discourse on the system of American government. "Anyway, that would be the Judicial Branch, which consists of the Supreme Court and its President-appointed justices. It's their job to make sure that the laws the Legislative branch passes are just, and in keeping with the spirit the country was founded on." Again, not quite that simple, but it would do for now.

"Magnificent! I've never heard of anything like it! And this is an effective form of government?"

Adam allowed a small smirk to show on his face as he regarded the excited teacher. "Every government has its flaws, Professor. But that one seems to work well enough for us."

Looking over towards the other two people present, Adam noted that Osmond, for the most part, hadn't really reacted one way or another to his revelations of other worlds and such, while Louise…

Oh, it seemed Louise(.exe) had suffered a fatal error and hard crashed. She looked to be about halfway through the rebooting process.

Turning back to the headmaster, he decided to give voice to his observations.

"Old Osmond sir, I can't help but notice that you don't seem to be too put out by any of this."

The old man chuckled at that, his eyes filled with amusement and… something else Adam couldn't identify.

"I could say the same about you, my boy. If what you've told us is true, and magic really doesn't exist in your world, then why do you seem so calm?"

Adam pursed his eyebrows and considered the question. Now that he thought about it, why _wasn't_ he freaked out about being sucked through a wormhole into fairytale land?

"Well… I suppose… I can think of four logical explanations for what's happening…" he once again began enumerating his points with the fingers of his right hand, "One: my roommate slipped something into my drink earlier as a joke, and this is all a drug-induced hallucination. If that's the case, all I can do is hope I haven't hurt anyone yet and that I don't wake up in a jail cell."

Colbert seemed alarmed that someone would do something like that as a mere prank. So alarmed, that he actually stopped writing for a brief moment.

"Two: I'm currently asleep, and this is all a dream. In which case, I just need to wait until I wake up."

Adam was fairly positive it wasn't that one, as the inscribing of the strange rune markings had been incredibly painful. Wouldn't that kind of pain have woken him up immediately? Adam raised another finger.

"Three: I've gone completely insane, and you all are nothing but figments of my imagination. Again, not much I can do in that situation but wait for the men in white coats to come take me away. And four…"

Sensing his hesitation, Old Osmond simply nodded in encouragement. A nod returned by the young man seated across from him after a moment of internal debate.

"And four: Everything that's happened to me has been real. Louise really summoned me, magic really exists, and I'm currently in another world, holding a discussion with the headmaster of not-Hogwarts. And if this is all real, well…"

Adam allowed himself a small grin, "freaking out about it wouldn't exactly be conducive to my continued survival, or to my efforts to return to my own world, now would it? Which brings me to my next question- how soon can you send me home?"

Adam wasn't exactly enthused by the awkward look shared between Colbert and Osmond at his inquiry. The smile slipped from his face as he reemphasized his question, speaking slowly and clearly this time.

" _How soon can you send me home_?"

Colbert coughed and looked away, running a hand over his scalp.

"The thing is, Mr. Adam… we can't."

-)(-

 **AN: Hey there! If you've taken the time to read this, then I just wanted to say 'thanks'! That, and go a little more in-depth about what this story is supposed to be.**

 **I'll be frank. This story is, first and foremost, a creative writing exercise. I'm not putting it up here because I think it's really good, I'm putting it up here because I think (read: hope) that it will help to make me a better writer in general.**

 **Don't expect a formal update schedule, because there won't be one. I have a few scenes and events written out in my head, but I haven't gone and planned out story arcs or anything. I'll try to write whenever I can, but as many of you probably know, summer job hunting can be kind of a bitch. And RL definitely takes precedence over fanfic writing.**

 **That being said, as a new writer, I'm extremely grateful to anyone that has taken the time to read my work. If you have any criticism (constructive or otherwise), then you know where to leave it!**

 **And again, thank you for reading.**

 **P.S. I know I forgot to do this last time, but it should be fairly obvious that I don't own _Zero no Tsukaima_ (aka _Familiar of Zero_ ) or any of its associated characters and settings.**


	3. Louise Vallière's Precious Little Life

**Chapter 2: Louise Vallière's Precious Little Life**

He had misheard them. He _had_ to have misheard them.

"You wanna run that by me again?"

Again, Colbert awkwardly scratched at his head and gave the young man a sheepish look, "I'm afraid that we don't have any way to send you back, Mr. Adam."

He could only stare disbelievingly at the man. No way to send him back? That was patently impossible. They had capital-m Magic. If they could Deus ex-machina him across the gulf between their worlds, then there damn well _had_ to be a way to send him back. There had to!

"What do you mean you don't have a way? You summoned me here, so can't you just reverse the process, or use a banishment spell or something?"

Old Osmond took over for Colbert at that point. "I'm afraid that there is no way to reverse the process, and a 'banishment spell' as you put it, was never created as we've never needed anything like that before."

There was absolute silence for about twenty seconds as Adam just stared at the two educators in front of him. Then, without warning, he angrily shot to his feet, knocking his chair backwards onto the floor.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? WHAT KIND OF HALF-BAKED MAGES ARE YOU!?"

Thankfully, both Osmond and Colbert seemed to be shocked less by _what_ the young man had said (screamed really), and more by the _volume_ at which he said it. Even Ms. Longueville looked up from her work in surprise at the spectacle.

"I mean seriously! What kind of _moron_ invents a _summoning spell_ , but not a way to send back whatever gets summoned in case it turns out to be _dangerous!?_ I could've been a _deranged serial killer_ for all you knew!" At that, Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out his knife, flicking out the three inch blade with every intention of making his point known to the shocked group in front of him.

"I could have whipped this out and attacked the students the moment I set eyes on them!" He loudly exclaimed, brandishing the naked blade for all to see. "Is that really something you want to leave up… to… chance…"

Adam trailed off, his rant all but completely forgotten. Louise, on the other hand, was just getting started with hers.

"How _dare_ you! How _dare_ you insult the legacy that Founder Brimir himself passed down to us! I don't care what kind of confusing, backwater commoner world you came from, you are my familiar, and if you continue to act out of line then I will punish you accordingly! Do you understand me you dog!?"

Adam hadn't even heard her. He was too caught up in the knife currently grasped in his right hand. It had been given to him by his uncle for his tenth birthday (much to his mother's chagrin), and since then, it had seen little use besides as a package opener when his parents sent him things at college. It had never been anything more than a tool to him. But now?

Now it was a weapon.

Information flooded into his mind; different grips in which to hold it, and different situations where each would be most effective. Which areas of the body he could stab or cut in order to inflict the most harm. The perfect snapping motion of the wrist to ensure that the knife would hit whatever he was aiming at dead on, and blade first.

Yes, the knife he'd used less than a dozen times in the past eleven years now sat comfortably in his grip like an old friend he'd spent decades getting to know intimately. But that wasn't the weirdest part. No, the weirdest part was the fact that he felt so _light_ holding it.

It was the strangest sensation. Adam felt stronger than ever before, as if he'd spent years training at many times Earth's gravity like in those old cartoons he used to watch. His mind felt sharper, his vision, hearing, spatial awareness, and reaction time drastically improving as all extraneous thoughts were suppressed. He felt powerful, powerful enough to take on anything. It wasn't until he felt an odd tingle in the back of his left hand that he managed to pull himself from his reverie and pay attention to what was happening around him.

' _Huh. The runes are glowing. Are they supposed to do that?'_

Adam looked back up at the men who remained stunned in their seats before him, raising his left hand so that they too could see the phenomenon in action. "Alright, next question: what are these and what are they doing?"

"STOP IGNORING ME!"

Adam looked over in surprise, having completely forgotten that the young girl was even present in the conversation. Raising his eyebrow, he put away his knife and patiently waited for her to finish her little episode.

Louise graciously complied.

"I've been lenient up until now, but I'm not letting you brush me off any longer you plebian! You've been nothing but insubordinate and dismissive ever since you got here! Treating me, your master, as if I was nothing but a distraction while you run around wasting everyone's time with your pointless questions! You don't know what I've had to put up with from the other students up till now! You don't know what I had to go through to summon you here! But I DID summon you here, and that makes you my familiar! So stop acting as if you're the one in charge here, and start listening to me, like a good, OBEDIENT familiar should!"

Adam continued to wait patiently for Louise to regain her breath from her angry tirade before responding.

"You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I ever had any intention of being your familiar in the first place."

Louise just looked at him in shock.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

Adam calmly regarded the girl and clarified.

"It means I refuse to be your familiar."

All color immediately drained from the young girl's face, his words hitting her like a physical blow.

"W-w-what!? Y-you can't do that! You _have_ to be my familiar!"

"Oh yeah? Says who?"

"The scriptures of the Great Founder Brimir state that-"

Adam loomed over the girl, raising his own voice in irritation at her juvenile sense of entitlement.

"I don't give a shit what your stupid Founder says! This may all be real, but that doesn't stop me from hoping it's all just a bad dream anyway!"

The blonde mage could only balk when faced with the ire of the older boy. She had expected resistance, but outright refusal? Who ever heard of a familiar refusing to do its job?

"I can't stay here, Louise! I don't _want_ to stay here! I have a life! Friends and family to get back to! Or did you think that you'd summoned someone who'd just give up everything to be your familiar if you asked them nicely? I was in University, working towards a successful career! My parents… oh god, my parents… I'll be the _second_ child they've lost…"

The anger evaporated out of him. Overcome by a sudden bout of both physical and mental exhaustion, Adam righted his chair and sank into it, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Try seeing things from _my_ perspective," he looked up tiredly at the girl. "How would you respond if you were magically kidnapped away from everything you know and love to another world and were demanded by the person who kidnapped you to willingly submit yourself to a life of, at best, indentured servitude and, at worst, _slavery_?"

Louise didn't say anything. What _could_ she say? He had spoken nothing but the truth after all. She couldn't _make_ him do anything, and they both knew it. But more than that, even if she could, she knew she had no right to force him to leave everything behind to become the familiar she wanted him to be, even if he was just a commoner. Even still…

"Even still…" Louise looked up to the boy, tears once more gathering in the corners of her eyes. "Even still, I would ask this of you. I would ask you to be my familiar."

Adam boggled at the girl's sudden 180° shift in tone, but had no time to respond as Louise forged on ahead with whatever it was she had to say.

"You're right, I know I'm asking for a lot, but you don't understand the position I'm in. The truth is… I'm a failure. No matter what I do, no matter what spell I attempt, it always ends in disaster. My family… my parents are very high up in our society you see, so they have to constantly keep up appearances. Sometimes I think they sent me to this school just so they wouldn't have to deal with me at home. The other students laugh at me, call me a _Zero_ because they think I can't do magic, and the teachers haven't been able to help me fix whatever's wrong with me either. The Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual was my last chance to prove that I was worthy of wearing the mantle of nobility that I'd always taken pride in. And it worked! I summoned _you_ here! And all the way from another world, if what you say is true!"

Louise regarded the shell-shocked boy in front of her with a sad smile.

"You're the only thing I've ever done right."

And just like that, the smile was gone, replaced with a pained grimace aimed at the floor that Adam had to admit was doing a terrific job of tugging at his heartstrings.

"so please…" Louise trailed off in a small voice, almost too quietly for Adam to hear.

Adam just stared in astonishment at the young girl's confession. For a self-proclaimed 'noble' to admit all of that to a simple 'commoner' like him, he could only imagine how much pride she'd had to swallow to do it.

He couldn't stay. His life was waiting for him back home. He'd be graduating in a little under a year-and-a-half, getting a good job, buying an apartment, being a responsible adult who meaningfully contributes to society and all that jazz. True, her story was sad, but his own wasn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows either!

" _You're the only thing I've ever done right."_

Still, what the hell was he supposed to say to something like that? She looked like a kicked puppy for Christ's sake!

In his mind's eye, Adam once more saw her delicate, vulnerable, tear-stained face looking up from where she kneeled before him in the dirt, her wide amber eyes unable to break contact with his own bright emerald ones.

' _Ffffffffffffffffuck.'_

-)(-

Louise couldn't breathe. She had just poured out her heart, bared her very _soul_ , to a commoner who didn't want anything to do with her. Why? Why oh why couldn't she stop herself? She was desperate, yes. But once she'd started, it had all come rushing out of her, like a dam had burst inside her somewhere and the flow of words could no longer be controlled. And now he knew that she was nothing but a chronic failure.

Of course, now that he knew she was a failure, there was _no way_ he'd ever agree to stay. After all, who wants to be around someone who can only blow things up? Again she'd had her chance, and again she'd blown it.

"Look, Louise…"

This was it. He'd refuse again, and then she'd have nothing. No friends, no magic, she couldn't even manage to keep ahold of the one thing she'd succeeded in.

Resignedly looking up to face the older boy, she expected to see disdain in his eyes, or possibly even joy at the plight of a noble. She was surprised to find what she could only classify as 'exasperated sympathy' instead.

"You say that there's no way for me to return home. I still don't believe that, and I won't stop looking for a way back until I find it."

Of course he would. It was only natural to want to go home. Who'd choose a Zero like her over a fulfilling life like his?

"But…"

But? But what?

"But… that may not end up happening for a while. So maybe, MAYBE… we can work something out in the interim."

Wait… was that… did he just… agree? To be her familiar? After everything she said?

She watched as the boy regarded her with a tired smile. "That sound fair to you?"

She had to make sure.

"R-really?"

He nodded.

"Really."

He had. He'd agreed to be her familiar. Hope blossomed to life in Louise's chest, and as she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes she offered him a smile in return that could only be described as 'radiant'.

"Y-y-yes" she stammered out, before once more dropping her gaze and whispering " _Thank you_."

"Ah- _hem_ "

Adam and Louise turned to look at the headmaster who'd interrupted them.

"Well, I'm truly glad you two managed to work something out. Now, if there's nothing else, we might just be able to catch the tail-end of the dinner rush…"

"Oh no you don't. You've got work to do." Ms. Longueville sauntered up, a large stack of papers in hand. "Here's all the parent letters, spell catalyst supply invoices, overdue tuition notifications, and palace memos you need to go through."

Osmond regarded the secretary with a horrified expression. "Why Ms. Longueville! Surely you wouldn't deny this poor, old, feeble, _ailing_ man a spot of grub, would you? It could be the very death of me!"

The green-haired woman simply met him with an unsympathetic gaze and dropped the stack of papers on the desk. "Well then maybe this _feeble old man_ shouldn't have spent three hours staring out the window and _smoking_. I can see now that I'll have to take pains to prevent you from doing so in the future, seeing as your health simply can't take the strain."

Osmond pouted at that, an expression that shouldn't be worn by anyone over the age of eight, much less _eighty_.

"Why must you always ruin my fun, Ms. Longueville? If you keep acting like that, you'll never net yourself a husband."

Longueville's ears turned bright scarlet at the old headmaster's words, the wooden clipboard she still held on to straining under the pressure of her clenched fingers.

"Of course, it would certainly help if you didn't wear such a boring pair of plain white p-*SMACK*

They never found out what it was that Longueville wore, as the headmaster was interrupted by a paperweight nailing him right between the eyes, sending him careening out of his chair and into the wall where he lay silently twitching.

Giving a small cough, the secretary turned to the three who remained.

"I'm afraid the Headmaster is going to be rather… _indisposed_ for a while. I suggest you return at a later date if you have anything more to discuss with him.

Silently catching each other's eyes and nodding, Adam, Louise, and Colbert agreed to leave the man to his business and get away from the terrifying green-haired secretary as fast as humanly possible, lest she begin firing off more paperweights.

As they left the office, Professor Colbert offered to have meals sent up to Louise's room if they wanted to forego dining with the rest of the students in favor of talking things out, which they graciously accepted.

As they made their way to the student dorms, Louise couldn't help but wonder what the future would hold for her and the headstrong boy she'd summoned.

-)(-

Forty minutes later, Adam and Louise were seated at a small table in Louise's room, poking at the food the servants had brought them and awkwardly looking everywhere but at each other.

As Adam took in the layout of the room, with its four-poster bed, floor-to-ceiling windows, and giant wardrobe, he couldn't help but notice that no matter where you went a dorm room was still a dorm room. The walls were unadorned, the slightly off-white paint evenly coating the room's entirety to give it an 'upper-class feel', and there wasn't a speck of dust in the place, which meant it was obviously well cared for. The windows were optimally positioned to give the occupant a beautiful view of Halkeginia's twin moons shining down on the countryside.

Yeah, there were two moons here; one red and one blue. Adam was actively ignoring that fact in an attempt to save himself a massive headache contemplating how that was physically possible.

Anyway, despite all that, the room didn't feel like a _home_. It felt, for lack of a better term, _homogeneous_. It was as if it had been taken from a mold wholesale.

As Adam was observing this, Louise had apparently chosen to break the silence.

"Sorry, what was that?"

Louise pouted slightly. "I asked if you were going to eat anything."

"Ah. No, I'm not really all that hungry to be honest. It was about eight o'clock in the morning where I was when you summoned me here. I won't be hungry for a while now."

"I see…"

The two resumed their awkward silence for a few more minutes until Adam decided to just bite the bullet.

"So, what kind of responsibilities does a familiar usually have?"

"Well… a familiar usually assists its master by collecting reagents."

"Reagents… like potion ingredients and stuff?"

"Yes, though they can also be used as fuel for certain spells. Some of them are really rare and can only be found in shops, usually at exorbitant prices, but others can be found in your everyday garden or in the forests surrounding the Academy."

Adam nodded. "I can do that. I may need your help identifying specific ingredients at first, but it shouldn't prove too difficult after a while."

Louise turned her head off to the side, still clearly uncomfortable with the situation "I see. That's good."

"..."

"..."

"So what else does a familiar do?"

"A familiar can also provide its master with enhanced senses, acting as its eyes and ears. I have yet to try it with you though."

Adam tried giving her a reassuring smile. "Well, why don't you give it a shot now?"

Louise turned back and thought for a few moments before replying.

"Alright"

Louise closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing happened for a good minute or so, at which point the two were assaulted by the feeling of what felt like thousands of needles pressing into the backs of their eyes.

Collapsing onto the floor, Adam and Louise gasped in pain, their vision flickering back and forth between their two viewpoints.

" _Arrgh!_ Louise, end the _GYAAH_ -ddamn spell!"

A few more torturous moments later, and the pain began to recede, leaving the two youths panting for breath on the tiling.

*huff* *huff* "Alright, new plan- *huff* never do that again."

Louise sluggishly looked over and met the older boy's eyes.

*huff* "Good plan" *huff*

The two burst into laughter at that, Louise's dainty giggles mixing with Adams louder chuckles, chortles, and guffaws as some of the tension of their situation melted away in the aftermath of their failed attempt at shared senses.

Finally composing themselves minutes later, the two carefully righted their chairs, seating themselves once more at Louise's table.

"Alright, so the 'enhanced senses' thing is a bust. Is there anything else?"

Louise regarded the young man with a serious look.

"Most importantly, a familiar must be able to protect and care for its master if they're ever in trouble. That one would probably be easier if you were something more impressive, like a griffon or a manticore. I'm not sure how helpful you'll be in that area…"

Adam could only frown at the girls words. "Hey, I take offence to that."

"It's not my fault that commoners can't stand up to most magical creatures, much less other mages." The diminutive girl crossed her arms over her chest.

He couldn't believe it. She was looking down on him. She was looking down on him just because he couldn't use magic.

That was unacceptable.

"Louise, what do you see when you look at me?"

"Huh?"

"What do you see when you look at me?"

Louise scrunched up her face, trying to see through what she could easily identify as a trick question. Unfortunately, she couldn't get the trick.

"I see the commoner that I summoned as a familiar earlier today. You said your name was Adam and that you were from another world, and you wear strange clothing. You have brown hair, green eyes, and fair skin. Is that good enough?"

Adam nodded his head. "Now, tell me what you think _I_ see when I look at _you_."

Still unsure of where he was going with this, Louise responded hesitantly- "You see your master… the noble that summoned you to her world earlier today…"

Adam slowly began to shake his head, causing Louise to cock hers to the side in confusion.

"That's not what you see?"

"Nope"

"Alright, then what _do_ you see when you look at me?"

Adam calmly regarded the girl on the other side of the table, his fingers entwined in front of his face.

"I see a girl."

Louise narrowed her eyes, "And…?"

"And nothing."

"What do you mean 'and nothing'!?"

Adam let out a sigh, "I mean, I don't see you as a noble, and I _certainly_ don't see you as my _master_ ," not bothering to hide his disdain in that last word, "I look at you, and all I see… is a girl."

Louise jumped to her feet, slamming her hands on the table in outrage.

"But you promised! You promised to be my familiar! That makes me your master!"

"I promised no such thing. I said 'maybe we could work something out', not 'I promise to be your familiar'."

Louise sank back into her chair; defeat and disappointment clear on her face, along with anger, betrayal, and resignation. After all, a 'commoner' was playing her like some cheap instrument, and her noble pride was injured enough as it was. She glared at the older boy.

"What do you want?"

She expected him to say 'money'. Maybe even 'connections' or 'favors'. After all, she herself had been the one to tell him that she had highly influential parents. She really, _really_ hoped he wouldn't say 'you'. Even a failure like her had standards after all.

Instead, he asked for none of those things.

"All I want is to be treated fairly, just like everyone else."

She could only stare at him, gobsmacked.

"That's it?"

"That's it. There's a saying back in my world- 'treat people the way you want to be treated'. I can clean your clothes, I can carry your books, and I can gather reagents. Hell, I can even protect you to the best of my ability. But I can't be your pet. I'm not just some mindless animal that you can order around to your heart's content. I'm a living, breathing human being with my own thoughts, feelings, and aspirations, and I expect to be treated as such. So I recommend you scrap any plans you had to 'whip me into line', because the moment you try it I'll walk out that door and you will never see me again. You'll be on your own again, and you'll have no-one to blame but yourself."

His face softened, as did his words- "Look, I know I'm not what you expected. You didn't plan for me to be here any more than I did, and I understand that. It's partly why I'm choosing to go along with this. I may not be willing to be your _familiar_ , but I am willing to be your _partner_ and your _guardian_. Maybe even your _friend_. You just have to be willing to see me as one. So, I'll ask again; what do you see when you look at me?"

He reached out his hand towards her, palm open.

Now was the moment of truth: would she give up on the notion of having a perfectly obedient familiar, or would she push the issue, possibly alienating him forever?

Louise deliberated with herself. A commoner was asking to be treated as an equal? It was so preposterous that it looped right back around to being a reasonable demand, given the circumstances. True, she had her noble pride to consider, a pride that he didn't seem to care about at all. Then again, he did mention that his world didn't even _have_ nobles (a concept she was still trying to wrap her head around). The more she thought about it however, the more she came back to the same idea over and over again. The idea that she was just _so tired_ of being alone all the time. She made her decision, reached out, and grasped his hand.

"I see a boy."

A wide grin burst out onto Adam's face. "And?"

Louise offered him a small smile in return. "And nothing."

The two shook hands.

-)(-

Louise lay awake in her bed, thinking about everything that had happened that day. The botched summoning, the appearance of the strange boy who called himself 'Adam', the visit with the headmaster (and all the revelations that entailed), and finally, her talk with Adam over his duties as her fami… partner.

' _Dear Founder, that's going to take some getting used to.'_

After accepting each-other as (somewhat) equal members in their 'partnership' as he called it, they'd talked some more about various other topics, like whether or not he'd attend classes with her and where he would sleep. She'd been certain he'd refuse the pile of hay she'd prepared as bedding for her summons, but once again he'd thrown her for a loop by being totally fine with it. She giggled at the memory of his words on the subject-

" _You seriously underestimate the sleeping habits of college students. We can fall asleep anywhere, at any time, for as long as we need to, and STILL wake up just as tired as we were when we passed out."_

After that, he'd asked to leave the room and explore the Academy for a bit to familiarize (heh) himself with the grounds. She'd acquiesced, on the condition that he be back to wake her up at dawn so she could get ready for classes. He'd agreed and left her to put herself to bed.

That had been three hours ago.

Louise knew exactly why she couldn't get to sleep. After all, the other students of the Academy probably didn't have _half_ the issues she had with her famil… _partner_. They probably wouldn't accept the idea of a mage and their summons standing on equal ground. They _definitely_ wouldn't accept a commoner refusing to be treated as such. She herself was already struggling with the noble's mindset that her society had ingrained in her at birth, and she had to actively stop herself from simply telling her familia- PARTNER off for insubordination. It certainly helped that their interactions were a two-way street. After all, if she didn't treat him like a lower class citizen, then he wouldn't treat her like she was a failure, right?

Though, she had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't have done that anyway.

As Louise finally began to succumb to the sweet embrace of unconsciousness, she smiled and thought to herself-

' _Maybe having a 'partner' won't be so bad after all…'_

-)(-

Adam silently closed the door behind him and breathed a sigh of relief. He honestly hadn't been sure whether or not Louise would go for the whole 'partner' thing, but now that all of that logistical stuff was out of the way, he could get on with his… experiment.

Walking down a hallway at random, he once again withdrew his pocketknife and repeatedly flicked the blade in and out, watching intently as the runes on the back of his left hand emitted a dull glow and the rush of power and clarity returned to him. He hadn't had a chance to get all of his questions answered earlier, but he'd noticed that the runes seemed to imbue him with the knowledge of how to wield the knife effectively as a weapon, and _only_ as a weapon _._ The fact that it could be used as a weapon was key somehow, he just knew it. Knives were useful for far more than just hurting people after all. He now had the knowledge to kill with his simple blade in a myriad of different ways, but if it all came down to his ability to whittle a block of wood into a recognizable shape then they'd all be totally screwed.

So he got to thinking: what if his knife wasn't the only weapon his runes reacted to? It was with that question in mind that he'd set out from Louise's room.

He'd made his way down a stairwell and out into a corridor lit only by the twin moons when he came across a pair of students standing together in an alcove. As he drew closer, he started to pick up snippets of what they were saying. He was able to make out something about soufflés, eyes, and the name Katie. Weird.

Deciding to put his new-found martial prowess to the test, he once more flicked out the blade of his knife, holding it in reverse-position. Crouching low, he silently burst forwards toward the two. He was just able to make out a mop of blond hair when he leaped upwards, kicked off of the wall, and twisted through the air, vaulting over the alcove archway entirely, before landing in a forward roll that took him back into the shadows on the other side. His impromptu acrobatics had lasted less than three seconds.

Standing flush against the wall, he stopped to listen for any indication of whether or not he'd been detected. When a full minute passed without incident, he smiled in self-satisfaction. They hadn't noticed him at all, and he hadn't even really tried!

' _And Louise said I couldn't protect her. Hah! I'd like to see a griffon or a manticore do THAT!'_

Oh yeah, he could DEFINITELY work with this.

Putting away his knife and resuming his quest, Adam continued wandering for the better part of an hour before finally coming across the thing he'd been looking for. For at the far end of the hallway he found himself in, lay a suit of decorative armor.

And in the gauntleted hands of that suit, was a big-ass halberd.

Approaching the clichéd castle decoration, Adam reached out with his right hand and grasped the shaft of the polearm it held. The runes on his left hand blazed to life once more, and instantly the knowledge, skills, and strength necessary to wield it were his. Stances from which he could attack in multiple directions, the benefits of stabbing as opposed to slashing, where to grip it so that it was perfectly balanced in his hands, different combinations of-

"Excuse m- _AHHH!_ "

Both Adam and the girl that had snuck up behind him screamed in unison as he accidentally ripped the halberd right off of the armor suit, gauntlets and all. Engrossed as he was in the runes' effects, he hadn't expected the shoulder tap that had accompanied her greeting. She, in turn, hadn't reacted favorably to the deadly weapon that was now pressed against her neck.

Neither of them moved. Adam used this time to observe the ashen-faced girl in front of him. She was of average height, well developed, and looked to be either sixteen or seventeen with shoulder-length black hair, matching eyes, and freckles. All in all, she was actually rather cute. She was dressed in a maid's uniform (thankfully more functional than fetish-y), so it could reasonably be assumed that she was probably a staff member. In which case, it was probably in his best interest to lower his weapon.

Slowly, Adam removed the business end of his liberated halberd from the girl's throat and returned it to the setup behind him, apologizing profusely all the while. "I'm really, _really_ sorry about that. You kinda startled me and I just sort of… reacted. I don't mean you any harm."

The girl swallowed, color seeping back into her face as the threat of death was removed from her immediate vicinity.

"T-t-that's q-quite alright. I was j-just coming over here to dust when I noticed you standing in front of the decorative armor. What… what were you doing, exactly?"

"I was... experimenting…"

"A-ah, I see…"

"..."

"..."

They just stared at each other.

' _Say something, you idiot! She probably thinks you're some kind of crazed axe murderer or something!'_

He supposed an introduction was probably a safe place to start.

"My name is Adam."

A spark of recognition flashed in the girl's eyes at his words. "Oh! You wouldn't happen to be the one that was summoned by Ms. Vallière, would you?"

Adam scratched at the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Yup, that's me. Nice to meet'cha. Not even six hours and the rumor mill's already fired up, huh?"

"Oh yes! I'd wager that the whole school knows about you by now. It's all the servants can talk about!" The maid replied with a smile, before a look of concern made itself known in her features. "Are you okay? Founder knows that the nobles aren't exactly… _accommodating_ to us commoners."

Adam offered the girl a reassuring smile. "I'm just fine, really. Louise has actually been very cooperative and accepting of my terms."

* _gasp_ * "You actually dictated terms!? To a _noble!?_ "

"Well, I wouldn't exactly use the word 'dictate'…"

The maid apparently hadn't heard him, being too busy staring at him with wide eyes filled with something that looked uncomfortably close to 'hero-worship'.

' _I guess the concept of a commoner talking back to the nobility_ would _be pretty remarkable to them…'_

"Oh! Where are my manners?" The maid suddenly dropped into a curtsy, feather duster still in hand. "My name is Siesta. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Adam!"

"Just 'Adam' is fine."

For the next two hours or so, Adam talked with Siesta as she went about her maid duties. She told him about all of the juiciest pieces of recent gossip, about how different teachers and students treated the Academy servants, and about what life was generally like for the common folk of Halkeginia. In turn, Adam told her about what _his_ homeland was like.

"Ahhhh, a land without nobles. It sounds like a fairytale!" Siesta exclaimed with stars twinkling in her eyes.

Adam huffed in amusement. "It's no fairytale, of that I can assure you. My society has problems, Siesta. BIG problems. Even without the nobles, things weren't even _remotely_ close to peaceful."

Eventually, the excitable maid completed her tasks and bid her companion goodnight, leaving Adam to mentally review the past few hours on his own.

All in all, the outing had been an overwhelming success. He'd confirmed that his runes reacted to weaponry, developed a fairly decent (by his estimation) working knowledge of the Academy's layout, and, despite their almost fatal introduction, made a friend. Friends were an invaluable resource in unfamiliar environments.

Deciding that there was nothing left to be done, he turned in the direction of his summoner's abode and started making his way back. After all, Louise needed him to wake her up at dawn. It was the least he could do.

-)(-

 **AN: Hey everyone! UnholyDiver checking in again!**

 **First of all, for those of you who get the reference in this chapter's title, congratulations. You have good taste in literature.**

 **In all seriousness though, this chapter was enjoyably challenging to write. I tried very hard to get the interactions between Adam and Louise to flow naturally. And by naturally, I mean it's actually supposed to feel kinda awkward because they don't really know each other yet. I had to rewrite, replace, and even cut various sections of dialogue because it wasn't quite how I wanted it. I'm pretty happy with the final product though.**

 **Also, I went back and reworked a few things in the previous two chapters. Nothing even remotely major, just a few word-flow alterations here and there. I wouldn't even recommend going back to check them out if you don't feel like it.**

 **And… that's it for now! Next chapter is the Guiche fight. If you have any criticism (constructive or otherwise), you know where to leave it.**

 **And again, thank you for reading.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own** _ **Zero no Tsukaima**_ **(aka** _ **Familiar of Zero**_ **) or any of its associated characters and settings.**


	4. The Kids Aren't Alright

**Chapter 3: The Kids Aren't Alright**

 _White walls. Curtained windows. Loud, rhythmic beeps and electronic sighs. Hushed voices just outside the door. The boy ignores all this and focuses on the bed in front of him. Another, slightly younger boy lays in this bed, with cards in his hand, mirth in his bright emerald eyes, and a mischievous grin on his face._

" _Come ooooooooon, if you aren't going to summon something then just end your turn so I can win already."_

 _The boy looks up from his own hand of cards to look at the younger boy. He's pale. He's so very pale. He hasn't left this room in years, so his only sources of sunlight are the windows off to the side. He hasn't had hair in years either, but the boy thinks he remembers the younger boy having sandy blond hair back when he could still grow it._

" _You haven't won yet, dummy. I'm still fighting."_

 _The younger boy sighs, "Well you're not doing a very good job. You're down by over six-thousand life points."_

" _That doesn't matter! I can still come back…" the boy trailed off, clearly just as unconfident in his chances as the younger boy was._

" _Sure you can…"_

" _Hmph. Just you watch."_

" _Hey!"_

 _The boy looked up again, "What?"_

" _I heard that the new Harry Potter movie is coming out on DVD soon! If the nurses let us, we should get a bunch of people together and watch it!"_

 _The boy smiled at the suggestion. "Yeah! We definitely will!"_

-)(-

* _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZZZZZZZZZT_ * * _BZZZZ-*_

Adam groggily sat up and turned off the vibrating alarm of the cell phone that had been lying on his chest, silently cursing whatever circumstances had deemed it appropriate that he wake up at six o'clock in the morning. Seriously, he didn't even _have_ classes today! And even if he did, they wouldn't start until _eight_! Was Nathan screwing with him again? No, something told him that wasn't it. Wasn't Nathan gone for the weekend? He must have set the alarm himself for some reason.

He rubbed at his eyes and contemplated the dream he'd just had. It had been a while since he'd had one like it. They didn't bother him so much anymore, and he'd been having them less and less as the years went by, but not a single one failed to send a twinge of pain through his heart.

He shoved those thoughts away and idly wondered why he'd used his phone as an alarm clock at all, considering the fact that he had a perfectly good one on the desk next to his bed. His bed…

His bed.

He wasn't _in_ his bed.

He was still fully clothed, and he wasn't in his bed.

' _The hell…? I don't remember going to a party last night… granted, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Where the hell am I? And why was I sleeping in a pile of_ hay _of all things?'_

Adam looked around, trying to identify anything that might clue him in as to where he was and what he'd been doing last night. Off-white walls, a four-poster bed (plus occupant, he noted), elegant windows that gave him a spectacular view of the two moons still hanging low in the sky as the oncoming dawn rushed upwards to meet them…

Wait what.

Adam sprang from his hay pile like a man possessed, quickly making his way to the windows and confirming that, yes, there were two moons in the sky. One red, one blue, and both quite a bit larger than he remembered the moon being.

All at once, everything came back to him. His mad dash across campus, his unfortunate run-in with an iridescent green portal, the summoning, the meeting with the headmaster, his talk with-

Louise.

He turned to face the bed, a barely-perceptible shadowed figure lying beyond the curtained veil.

' _Well, there's one mystery solved.'_

Sighing deeply and begrudgingly accepting that everything that had happened yesterday had been real, the young man made his way over to the bed and pulled aside the curtains, revealing his summoner in all her unconscious glory.

Her nearly-pink hair was splayed out all over the large pillow that her head rested upon, some of the stray locks trapped in the corner of her mouth. At some point during the night she'd kicked her comforter and sheets down to her knees, showing off the sheer, light-pink nightgown that she had chosen as sleepwear.

' _A little risqué for someone of her age-group, but whatever. It's probably just a cultural difference.'_

As he observed her, she let out a small snore, a dainty 'munya' escaping from her slightly parted lips and into the fresh morning air. She rolled over onto her back and muttered something Adam couldn't make out.

' _Holy shit, this girl is weaponized adorable.'_

Adam could all-too-easily imagine the girl before him on the front of a Hallmark Christmas card with a little halo photoshopped above her head. She was a vision of peace and tranquility incarnate.

.

.

.

'… _Aaaaaaaaannnd, that's enough of the peace and tranquility. If I have to suffer the waking world at six a.m., then so does she.'_

He grasped her shoulder and lightly began to shake her awake.

"Oi, Louise. It's dawn, up and at 'em."

Still only half-conscious himself, he replayed the words in his head and laughed.

' _Heh heh. Up and Adam.'_

Shaking his head to rid himself of the last vestiges of his sleepiness, he returned to his task with gusto.

"Hey, _*shake*shake*_ you told me _*shake*shake*_ to wake you up at dawn. _*shake*shake*_ The least you could do _*shake*shake*_ is follow through _*shake*shake*_ on your end!" _*shake*shake*_

Frustration mounted as the girl continued to rudely ignore his attempts to rouse her from dreamland.

"EARTH TO LOUISE!"

The young girl's eyes shot open at the older boy's shout, confusion setting in as the dominant expression as the surprise faded from her face.

"Huhhhhh…? Who're you?" she asked in a slurred voice with half-lidded eyes, a thin line of drool making its way down the side of her cheek.

Adam valiantly resisted the urge to facepalm. She was even worse in the mornings than he was!

Instead, he deadpanned, "The Ghost of Christmas Future."

"…"

"…"

"I don't get it."

"Ugh, it's me! Adam! You know, the guy you summoned in your familiar ritual yesterday?"

Adam watched in exasperation as her brain processed his explanation and a spark of recognition flared in her amber eyes.

"Oh yeah. I did do that, didn't I?"

At that, Louise threw up her arms and let out the biggest, most dramatic yawn Adam had ever seen, then turned up to face him with a smile.

"Good morning."

Adam smirked in amusement. "Good morning to you too. I got you up at dawn, just like you asked."

Louise glanced out her window at the sun peeking over the horizon. "I can see that. Thank you, Adam."

"You're welcome," the young man returned, walking over to her table and sitting down backwards in a chair to face her. "So, what's on the docket for today?"

Louise tapped her chin in thought before responding, "Well, after breakfast I've got _Practical Applications of Intermediary Earth Magic_ with Ms. Chevreuse, followed by _Advanced Magical Theory_ with The Blowhard."

"Blowhard?"

Louise scrunched up her face in distaste. "His name is Kaita the Gust. He's supposed to teach us about all different kinds of magic, but all he does is go on and on about how wind magic is _sooooo_ _superior_ to everything else. So we call him 'Kaita the Blowhard'."

Adam chuckled at the less-than-favorable nickname for her teacher. "Nice. So what's after that?"

"After that, we break for lunch."

Adam nodded, "Sounds good. And after lunch?"

"Nothing. All of the second-years' afternoon classes have been cancelled for today so that they can 'bond' with their new familiars."

"So basically it'll be a bunch of teenagers goofing off all afternoon."

Louise giggled at his candid prediction. "Yes, most likely."

"Gotcha. In that case, hurry up and get dressed so we can go eat. I'll be waiting outside."

With that, Adam stood up from the table and started towards the door. He'd made it about halfway when Louise called out to him.

"Wait!"

Turning back to face her, Adam raised an eyebrow and waited for Louise to say whatever it was she had to say.

The blonde was awkwardly looking off to the side, actively trying to avoid the emerald gaze of her summoned companion.

"It's just that, well… nobles aren't supposed to dress themselves if there are others around to do it for them…"

Adam just looked at her incredulously.

' _Is she serious? Like, ACTUALLY serious?'_

"Louise, how old are you?"

She gave him a confused look, like she couldn't understand why that would be relevant information.

"I'm seventeen. Why?'

"Shit, really?" he exclaimed in surprise. He honestly hadn't been prepared for that answer. She'd mentioned last night that she was in the top of her class in all her theoretical subjects, so he'd been operating on the assumption that she'd just skipped a few grades and was really thirteen or something. Come to find out, she's only four years younger than him!

He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

In any case, apparently 'shit, really?' had been the wrong thing to say. Rage began building in Louise's features at the older boy's disbelief at her true age. He could only assume that her short stature was a touchy subject.

"Uh, I-I mean, of COURSE you are! Yeah! T-totally seventeen!" Adam backpedaled as quickly as possible, not wanting to set the girl off this early in the morning. He cleared his throat in an attempt to get his wrecked train of thought back onto rails.

*Ah- _hem_ * "Anyway… Louise, you are a seventeen-year-old girl. Please explain to me why you need to be dressed as if you were a child or an invalid."

"Well… tradition dictates that servants are supposed to dress their noble masters, so I just thought…"

Adam regarded her with a questioning gaze. "So what did you do before I got here? Did you call for one of the Academy staff members to come in here and dress you every morning then too?"

"Well, no…"

"Then you shouldn't have any problem continuing to put on your own clothes, like any healthy adult should reasonably be able to do."

Louise looked as if she still wanted to argue the point, but sighed and accepted that he wouldn't budge from his position. It honestly just wasn't worth the headache of arguing with the older boy this early in the morning.

Breakfast first, _then_ arguments.

"Alright, fine. Give me a little while and I'll meet you outside."

Adam nodded and continued on through the room's impressively sized door, leaving his petite summoner to go about her own morning routine.

-)(-

It had been about fifteen minutes since Adam had left Louise to her own devices, and about five since he'd grown bored of waiting for her, whipped out his pocketknife and phone, and started playing Tetris.

Fun fact: the mental boost that his runes gave him made Tetris absolute _child's play_. It really wasn't even fair anymore. As such, he quickly became bored with _it_ too.

He'd just put his source of momentary amusement away and started staring off into space when a door opened a little further down the hall. Ignoring it in favor of wondering how much longer Louise was going to be, he therefore didn't take note of who'd exited the neighboring room until they were standing almost on top of him.

"Oh? What have we here?"

Adam looked up to face the voice that had addressed him, and was surprised to find that he recognized its owner. It was the busty, tanned redhead that he'd seen in that crowd of students at the summoning yesterday. At her side was a wisp of a girl, with pale blue hair, glasses, and a staff held in the crook of her arm, as both her hands were occupied with the book she was reading.

' _Blue hair? That's a new one. Ten bucks says she uses ice magic.'_

Adam returned his attention to the one who'd spoken. "Just waiting for Louise to finish getting ready. Did you need something?"

"Now now, is that any way to speak to a noble?"

"Dunno. Is that any way to dress in a school?"

The redhead flinched at that, and looked down at her well-filled blouse (with the top two buttons undone no less), abbreviated skirt, and thigh-high boots. A touch of color made its way onto her face as she looked back up at the young man before her.

"What's wrong with the way I dress?"

"Depends. What's wrong with the way I speak?"

The redhead was taken aback by that, and silently looked over the older boy seated against the wall, sizing him up. Eventually, she finished her evaluation of him, huffed, and flicked her hair out of her eyes.

"Fine, be that way. But you should at least be polite and give your name to those you are speaking to."

The young man raised an eyebrow in response, but decided there was no harm in it. "Adam. And you are?"

The noble girl placed her hands on her hips and upturned her nose a few degrees.

"You have the pleasure of addressing Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst. I am also known as Kirche the Ardent, as the flames of my passion burn _long_ and _deep_ into the night!" the girl exclaimed, equal parts flirtatious and proud.

Adam looked at the girl in surprise. "Really? That's a weird parallel…"

The newly identified Kirche's face adopted a puzzled expression. "I'm sorry? What's a weird parallel?"

"Nothing. It's just that your name is almost identical to a famous historical figure from my wor-… homeland."

"Really? Is that so?"

Adam nodded. "Yeah. Her name was Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, better known as Catherine the Great. She was the Empress of Russia, a country in my homeland, for over thirty years."

"Really? I've never heard of such a woman. Though she does sound rather impressive. What was her element?"

Adam shrugged in response to the redhead's question. "She didn't have one. She wasn't a mage."

"Truly? What a strange country this 'Russia' must be."

*shrug* "I guess."

Suddenly, Kirche narrowed her eyes and leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially.

"Say, are you aren't _really_ Vallière's familiar, are you? How much is she paying you to do this?"

Adam, to his credit, managed to keep his face impassive.

"How much did _you_ pay the guy that did your alterations?"

"I beg your pardon? What alterations?"

Adam very pointedly stared at her most prominent… _assets_.

Kirche looked to see what he was staring at, and gasped when the boy's words clicked in her head.

"Hey! I'll have you know that these are completely natural!"

"Sure they are."

Kirche looked about ready to blow her top (in both senses), "They're real, dammit!"

"And so was Louise's summoning."

The redhead leaned back and glared at the young man, "You're very rude, you know that? A rude boy that asks rude questions."

Adam responded with a glare of his own, "No ruder than the one who needlessly cast aspersions on the validity of her classmate's magic."

"Hmph. Such an unruly familiar the Zero has. Nothing at all like _my_ familiar." At that, the girl emitted a high-pitched whistle, to which the Charmeleon from yesterday scampered out of her room and ran up to stand faithfully at its master's side.

"This is my familiar, Flame. Isn't he just wonderful? He's an incredibly rare fire salamander from the Monti di Fiamma! A perfect match for a passionate fire mage like me, wouldn't you say?"

As the redhead cooed over her lizard flambé, Adam silently laughed to himself.

 _''Flame' huh? How creative. Betcha had to dig_ real _deep for that one, didn't you?'_

It was then that he took note of the fact that she had said something in another language. A language that he recognized, if only vaguely.

 _'Wait a sec, Monti di Fiamma? Isn't that Italian? I know Fiamma means 'Flame' and Monti… Mountains? Mountains of Flame?'_

Strange. First French, now Italian? Were Halkeginia and Earth more closely connected than he'd previously thought?

"Hey, I asked you a question!"

Adam looked back up at the pouting redhead in front of him.

"Sorry, what?"

"I asked what you thought of Flame!"

Adam rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes; he's a very nice fire salamander."

Kirche regarded his favorable answer (insincere though it was) with a smile.

"He is, isn't he?"

At that, the busty fire mage turned to regard Louise's door.

"So anyway, what's taking the Zero so long to get ready?"

Adam frowned at the girl's repeated usage of his summoner's nickname. "You know, you really shouldn't call her that."

Kirche regarded him with a coquettish grin. "Oh? And why's that? Has our little Zero captured her familiar's heart so quickly? It's not even been a day, and you're already rushing to her defense!"

"It has less to do with that, and more to do with the fact that she can hear you."

Puzzlement replaced the grin on Kirche's face as she cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"Huh? What do you mean she can hear me?"

"I mean she's currently standing on the other side of the door, listening to our conversation."

A small 'eep!' could be heard from within Louise's room before the door opened to reveal the girl herself, her face registering both irritation and embarrassment at having been caught eavesdropping.

"How did you know I was there?"

"I saw the shadow of your feet underneath the door." the young man explained as he stood up, before nodding at the textbooks in Louise's hands. "You want me to carry those?"

"Oh. Um, yes, that would be fine. Thank you."

Louise handed the books to her companion, who tucked them between his right arm and torso, before turning to the other two people present. "Tabitha. _Zerbst_."

By that point, Kirche had recovered enough to send a grin in Louise's direction. "Well hello there Vallière! How're we feeling this morning? Not too tired from yesterday's ritual I hope."

Louise simply ignored her, turning to address her companion. "Let's go, Adam."

Adam just stared at Louise for a moment before shrugging and turning to the redhead.

"Whatever. Anyway, nice meeting you Kirche and… Tabitha was it?" he spared a glance in the bluenette's direction before turning back and starting after Louise.

Kirche stared at their retreating forms until they turned a corner and vanished from sight before turning to face her blue-haired friend.

"So, Tabs, what do you think?"

Tabitha quietly responded with a noncommittal 'I don't know' before turning another page in her book.

-)(-

"Sooooooooooo… judging by the pure, unadulterated _loathing_ with which you addressed her, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you and Kirche have some history."

Louise turned and snarled at the older boy who had _dared_ to insinuate that she and that _cow_ shared _anything_ , only to immediately regret it with a pained grimace. After all, HE hadn't done anything to earn her ire. By the Founder, she'd even heard him _defend_ her earlier. Granted, he may have only defended her because he knew she was listening, but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in that regard. Taking a deep breath and schooling her features, Louise spoke in a clipped tone.

"The Vallière of Tristain and the Zerbst of Germania have had a blood feud going ever since my great-great-grandfather had his fiancé stolen by one of their lot. They're vile, lascivious, barbaric thieves, and they've killed many of my family members."

Adam looked at her in alarm, "Killed? Seriously?"

Louise gave a grim nod and continued.

"Yes, _killed_. The Vallière's and Zerbst's lands are on opposite sides of the Tristain-Germania border, so every time hostilities break out, our families are on the front lines and among the first to start fighting."

"But wouldn't that mean that the Vallière have taken just as many family members from _her_?"

Louise rounded on the boy, venom dripping from her words.

"You're taking _her_ side!?"

Adam simply raised his palms toward her in a show of surrender, "I'm not taking _anybody's_ side. I'm just trying to keep things in perspective. In war, there are casualties to be mourned on _every_ side, not just _yours_."

Louise turned away, unable to look her companion in the eye. She may have had no choice but to accept the truth in the _letter_ of his words, but she couldn't accept the _spirit_ of them.

She would never forgive the Zerbst for what they'd done to her family.

"So that explains your distaste for the Zerbst as a whole, but why do you hate Kirche so much specifically?"

"…she was the first one to call me Zero…" Louise muttered darkly.

Adam looked away, "I see."

"Yeah. Since the very beginning, she's always been there to shove my failure in my face, to point out my uselessness as a mage, and to question my very _presence_ at this school. She's never missed an opportunity to put me down."

"Louise…"

"No matter what, she's always showing off how much better she is than me. She's the one with powerful magic, and a well-developed body, and boys flocking to her at all hours of the day. Not that I necessarily _want_ all of that, but it still hurts to have all of your own shortcomings brought up day-in and day-out! She has everything she could ever want, and _delights_ in reminding me that I have nothing!"

"Louise!"

"And the worst part? I can't even refute what she says! Neither in words, NOR in actions! None of my spells ever work the way they're supposed to! I'm a failure, and I've always _been_ a failure! I can't do anything right, and she never lets me forget it! I HATE her so much! I HATE that… that… that BITCH!"

"LOUISE!"

Adam's shout brought her back to herself, and she noticed that every eye in the hallway was now focused on her. She froze instantly.

"Uhh… um… I-I uh…"

She was shaking. She couldn't stop shaking. Why couldn't she stop shaking? She had just screamed out her darkest feelings in the middle of a crowded hallway, and now she couldn't stop shaking.

Cold sweat rolled down the back of her neck and she struggled to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move.

Everyone kept staring at her.

Everyone just kept staring at her, and she just kept on shaking.

Why? Why was this happening to her? Why couldn't she move? _And why won't they stop staring at her?_

She registered a firm, yet gentle hand grabbing hold of her arm and leading her into a nearby empty classroom, where she promptly fell to her knees and burst into tears.

She felt strong, warm arms encircle her. She felt a hand lightly stroke the back of her head, smoothing down her hair.

She heard a voice whispering into her ear, " _It's okay, it's okay. I'm here. I'm here for you. Everything's going to be okay_ …"

Louise wept in her familiar's arms.

-)(-

They stayed like that for half an hour; together in an empty classroom, Adam just holding Louise, gently rocking her back and forth as she soaked his shoulder with her tears.

Eventually, Louise's sobbing petered out into nothing but sniffles interspersed with the occasional hiccup. Slowly, gently, Adam disengaged himself from the emotionally damaged girl and helped her to her feet, keeping his hands on her shoulders to bring her some measure of comfort.

"Why don't we go back to your room? There's no reason for you to force yourself to go to class when you're like this."

Louise wiped her nose on her handkerchief and shook her head, "No, I can't do that. We've already missed breakfast. If I don't show up to class, people will start talking."

"That would imply that we care what they have to say. Let them talk; your health is more important."

Louise looked at the floor, secretly grateful that someone was worrying over her like this. But she was a noble, failure notwithstanding, and nobles didn't run away.

"I'm fine, really."

Adam regarded her silently for a few moments before nodding his head.

"Alright, if you're sure."

Louise looked up at him with tears still in her eyes.

"…Thank you… for staying with me… not many people would've done that."

Adam gave her a sad smile in return.

"How could I leave? I've dealt with bullies in the past myself, so I know just how hard it can be to keep going like you have. But you don't have to worry anymore, because now _I'm_ here to support you. You don't have to go it alone anymore."

Louise nodded back, and after a brief moment's thought threw her arms around her companion's chest in a hug that spoke of deep-seated pain and desperation for something, _anything_ to hold on to.

Adam silently returned her embrace, coming to a series of conclusions in his mind.

He hated this world. He hated the very _concept_ of its nobility. But most of all, he hated that the young girl in his arms had been broken so thoroughly that she had _almost immediately_ latched herself on emotionally to the first person in her age group that showed her even a little kindness. She had been told she was a failure for so long and by so many people that she had begun to _believe_ it. Any sense of self-worth or self-respect had long since eroded away, leaving her with nothing but a hollow pride in her noble heritage that she wore like armor. No… not like armor. Like a cage. A cage that kept her confined within herself even as it kept others away. She'd been broken into pieces by years of emotional abuse and ostracism by her peers, and it was looking more and more like he was the only one who would even bother to gather them up, much less put them back together. Christ, where was this girl's _family_? Did they know what had been done to her? Did they even _care_ that she was suffering from goddamn panic attacks?

Adam had never been particularly religious, but in that moment he thanked whatever Gods were out there that Louise had summoned _him_ , instead of someone more likely to take advantage of her in her fragile emotional state. He didn't want to think about what might've happened if she had. Then again, maybe she should've summoned a _therapist_ instead of a college student with a laundry list of his own personality issues.

Louise quickly let go of him, rubbing her eyes and putting on a brave face. "Now, enough of that! A _true_ noble never allows her emotions to overcome her! Now come, we have a class to get to." The effect of her words was slightly diminished by the red puffiness of her eyes and the blotchy discoloration of her tear-stained face.

"Whatever you say, Louise." Adam chuckled as they left the room to make the rest of the trip to Louise's first class of the day. Yes, he had chuckled.

But there was no smile to accompany it.

-)(-

Six minutes later, they entered the lecture hall styled classroom, only to be met with scornful laughter from the other students.

"Well if it isn't the Zero and her pet commoner!"

"You can't just kidnap random people off the street you know!"

"Whoa, has she been _crying_? How undignified!"

Adam literally _growled_ at them, causing the closest students to flinch back in alarm. He was within seconds of telling them all just where they could shove their stupid opinions when he felt Louise's hand on his arm.

"It's fine, Adam. Just ignore them."

He took a deep breath and nodded, following Louise to a pair of empty seats in the back of the room. They were forced to endure the stares and whisperings of her classmates for a few minutes more, until the front door of the room opened and in walked a plump woman in a long purple robe and pointed hat.

"Good morning, class! I am Madame Chevreuse, and I'll be teaching you _Practical Applications of Intermediary Earth Magic_ for the rest of this semester. I look forward to working with you all!" the woman smiled good-naturedly at the group assembled before her, until her eyes met with Adam's and she gave pause.

"Why Miss Vallière, that's an… _interesting_ familiar you've summoned."

An outbreak of snickering met the woman's words, but Adam ignored them and answered her himself.

"Good morning, Madame Chevreuse. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Oh my, how polite! The pleasure is all mine." Chevreuse exclaimed, offering him a look of approval before turning back to the rest of the class. "You lot could learn a thing or two from this young man."

Adam watched as a foppish-looking blonde boy sitting in the second row held out a rose, flamboyantly flipped up his hair and regarded the professor with an amused grin.

"Madame, surely you cannot mean to imply that distinguished members of the nobility such as us have _anything_ to learn from a plebeian like _that_?"

Adam had never wanted the ability to kill people with mind bullets as much as he did at that moment.

 _'How is it even physically possible to get that far up your own ass? I'm_ astounded _he can't see out of his own mouth.'_

The rest of the class however seemed to be of one mind with the rose-sporting tool, nodding their heads in agreement.

Chevreuse merely looked at the boy and smiled. "But of course. Life is a never-ending learning experience, and as members of the noble class we have a duty to continually improve ourselves so that we can stand as shining examples of good conduct and proper behavior to the common folk, mister…"

Flipping his hair again, the tool responded with a haughty "Gramont, Madame. Guiche de Gramont, also known as Guiche the Bronze, son of the famous General Antoine Gramont of the Tristainian military."

"Well Mr. Gramont, always remember that wisdom can come in all shapes and sizes, and from every social strata."

Adam decided then and there that he liked this professor. She had a good head on her shoulders.

For the next two hours, Professor Chevreuse lectured them on the various uses that earth magic had within Halkeginian society, from synthesizing certain metals, to constructing roads, to carving entire buildings out of solid rock. Adam found the lecture positively enthralling. He hung on the professor's every word, soaking up everything he could on how functional magic interacted with their society on a daily basis. It was all so _new_ to him. He'd never imagined that he'd one day be learning this kind of thing _anywhere_ , much less in a classroom setting in another world. And yet, if one were to ignore the lesson's subject matter, it was entirely possible that he'd be doing the _exact same thing_ at this very moment were he back in his world. The surreality of the situation almost had him laughing out loud.

Louise was similarly engrossed in the lesson, taking pages and pages of notes and drawing various diagrams of whatever it was that Professor Chevreuse happened to be discussing at the moment. It wasn't difficult to figure out why. For so long, Louise had been unable to take part in any practical aspects of magic. She was, by her own admission, a failure in that respect. Therefore, she had dove head-first into the theoretical side of her arcane birthright, the underlying reasons _why_ magic worked and affected the world the way it did, in order to come as close as she could to being a successful mage in a society where magical ability was everything.

They had just finished up with the finer points of earth magic's influence on Halkeginia's agriculture throughout history when Professor Chevreuse called the class to attention.

"Alright students, we've covered much of the groundwork that we're going to be building on this semester. Now, I'd like to cover a few of the earth spells you should have been introduced to last year, starting with Transmutation."

Adam leaned forward in anticipation. If Transmutation did what he thought it did, then he _had_ to see this with his own two eyes.

The plump woman waved her wand and three small pebbles appeared on the lectern that stood at the front of the room.

"As you can see, I have three ordinary stones here before me. Now, observe the transmutation process."

Professor Chevreuse gestured with her wand at the stones, vocalized a short incantation, and suddenly the pebbles lit up like fireflies. When the glow died down moments later, the pebbles sparkled with a luster they hadn't previously possessed.

Adam heard Kirche cry out from across the classroom.

"Professor! Is that g-g-GOLD!?"

' _Nah. If gold were that easy to make then Halkeginia's economy wouldn't run off the stuff.'_

Curiously, of the few subjects that he'd discussed with Louise the previous night, the local economy had been among them. Adam learned that the monetary denomination for the majority of Halkeginia was the 'New Gold' coin, more commonly referred to as the écu that the Holy Church of the Founder (another topic they'd covered) distributed from the country of Romalia. The fact that the papacy was in charge of minting for the entire continent set off dozens of red flags in his head, but he'd chosen to keep his reservations to himself until he had a chance to more accurately gauge the intensity of Louise's devotion to her faith and church.

"No Ms. Zerbst, I'm afraid this is but simple brass. Only square mages are capable of transmuting gold, and I am merely a triangle mage."

Adam leaned over towards Louise and whispered into her ear _"What's up with the geometry?"_

" _It symbolizes how powerful a mage is. There are four levels in total- Dot, Line, Triangle, and Square. Each level signifies how many different elements you can add together when casting spells."_

" _I take it they are one, two, three, and four respectively?"_

" _Correct. For instance, a triangle earth mage like her would be able to use a spell comprised of two earth elements and a fire element."_

" _So the spell in question would exhibit traits of both elements, but more-so earth than fire?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Am I correct in assuming that adding an element to itself just makes it more powerful?"_

" _You are."_

" _How many elements are there, in total?"_

" _Four standard; those being earth, wind, fire, and water, plus the lost element of Void."_

"Ms. Vallière!"

Louise looked up, startled by the professor's sudden calling of her name.

"Y-yes, Professor Chevreuse?"

The woman gave Louise a look of mild reproach. "If you feel that personal conversations are more conducive to your education than my lectures, then you must have already mastered the material we're covering. Perhaps you'd like to come down and give us a demonstration of the Transmutation spell?"

The blood drained from Louise's face, and Adam quickly rose to his feet at her side.

"I'm afraid I must apologize, Madame Chevreuse. In my ignorance of your systems of magic, I asked Louise to clarify a few points of yours that I didn't fully comprehend. The fault lies entirely with me."

Surprise clearly etched on the professor's face at the young man's willingness to own up to his folly, she responded "Is that so? Well I certainly appreciate your honesty Mr. Familiar, but I must insist that in the future, if you have questions, you either bring them up in class with the rest of us or wait and speak with me personally after the period has ended."

Adam nodded his head at the reasonable classroom policy, "Of course, Madame."

That was when Louise's classmates spoke up.

"Oh, thank the Founder…"

"Yeah, that was a close one."

"She almost had the Zero try magic!"

Professor Chevreuse looked over the class in confusion, "What's all this now?"

Kirche stood up and placed her hands on her desk, leaning out over the room.

"You've never actually taught Vallière before, have you Professor?"

"No. But I'm told by my colleagues that she's a bright girl and a hard worker."

Kirche shook her head vehemently, "It's dangerous, Professor! You can't let Louise try magic!"

"Dangerous? What nonsense is this? The Transmutation spell is perfectly safe."

A heavyset boy sitting off to the side of the room spoke up in a nasally voice, "Not with the Zero it isn't."

Louise shrank even further into her chair, and Adam death-glared at the boy.

"You wanna say that a little closer, tubs?"

The boy turned to the professor with an affronted look, "Madame Chevreuse, that commoner just insulted me!"

"I'll do more than that!"

"Be silent, you ruffian, or I'll see you whipped!"

"BOYS!" Professor Chevreuse gestured with her wand at the two, and instantly Adam's mouth was full of clay.

Spitting the foreign material from his mouth in disgust, and noting that the other boy was doing the same, he looked up to face the glare of Madame Chevreuse.

"I will not tolerate such behavior from _anyone_ in my classroom, be they commoner," she eyed Adam, "or noble." she declared, switching the subject of her ire to the other boy. "Otherwise, I'd be more than happy to remind you just why my runic name is 'the Red Clay'."

It was only because the room was totally silent in the aftermath of the teacher's admonishment that anyone heard Louise speak up at all.

"I'll do it."

She rose from her seat slowly, as if she were heading to the executioner's block instead of merely the front of a classroom. "I'll do the Transmutation spell."

The classroom erupted once more with cries of alarm, the many students all calling out for Louise not to do it, to reconsider. Adam looked at her with palpable concern.

"Are you sure about this, Louise? You don't have to do anything if you aren't comfortable with it."

Louise regarded him with a sad smile. "I have to at least try. Who knows? I got your summoning right, so maybe I can get this right too."

Adam nodded, "Alright, I understand. In that case, good luck."

Turning away from the older boy, Louise approached the front of the room where Professor Chevreuse was waiting with an unsure look on her face.

"Alright, Ms. Vallière. Go ahead and visualize the type of material you want to transmute, and recite the incantation."

Louise took a deep breath, raised her wand, and began the aria. Adam watched with a sinking feeling as all of the other students began taking cover underneath their desks, with the exception of that Tabitha girl who stood up without a word and left the room altogether.

It dawned on Adam that, while he knew that all of Louise's spells failed, he had never asked exactly _how_ they failed.

It was about that time that the front of the classroom exploded.

-)(-

Jean Colbert was frustrated.

After he'd sent for those meals to be brought to Vallière's room the previous night, he'd been consumed with curiosity over the familiar that she'd summoned. Or, more specifically, the runes that marked him as hers. True, the boy himself _had_ been fascinating. His explanation of the other world, and all the wonders that could be found therein, had been both enlightening and encouraging. That boy's knowledge could be just the thing he needed for a breakthrough in his experiments. _But_ _those runes_ …

Jean was familiar (no pun intended) with every kind of familiar rune that had ever been documented. He'd worked at the academy for a good number of years, and therefore had himself seen a good number of them inscribed at the various Springtime Summoning rituals he'd been present for. And those he hadn't seen with his own two eyes, he'd researched on his own. And in all the hours he'd spent going over the various runes and runic styles of Halkeginia, he'd never come across anything like what was emblazoned on the back of that boy's left hand.

That had been sufficient to get him interested enough to copy down the runes for further research once the summoning ritual had been completed. But when that boy brought them to the Headmaster's office and showed them that his runes were _glowing_ , which runes had never been known to do, Jean's inner scientist (not that he would've known to refer to it as such) reared its ugly head and DEMANDED answers. So, Colbert had rushed off to the school library, grabbed every book on Runeology and Familiars he could find, and started reading.

That had been sixteen hours ago, and Jean still wasn't any closer to an answer than he'd been when he started. He'd looked through almost everything he could get his hands on from both the open-to-students Academic Library AND the restricted-access Fenrir Library. All he had left to pore over was the Academy's copy of _Familiars of the Founder_ , which he'd intentionally saved for last because he honestly didn't expect to get anything out of it. With a sigh, he opened the ancient tome and began reading.

Twenty minutes later, he burst upwards from his chair in shock.

"This… this cannot be! If he really is… but then, that would mean…"

Colbert made a snap decision and swept the book up in his arms.

He had a Headmaster to speak with. Immediately.

-)(-

"So that happens _every single time_ you try to cast a spell?"

After the front of the classroom had exploded, Adam had quickly rushed to the blast zone fearing that he'd find nothing left of his summoner but a cloud of red mist, only to breathe a sigh of relief at sighting her none the worse for wear (apart from the soot covering her slightly torn clothes and frizzed-out hair). Madame Chevreuse had come out of the blast relatively unscathed as well, having been only knocked out when her head hit the floor. The students that had taken cover had slowly begun to rise up and look over the damage, many of them shouting jeers at 'the Zero failing yet again'. Adam had shouted back at them, telling them that if they wanted to make themselves useful, instead of just standing there with their mouths flapping in the wind, then they could open the windows, clear out of the room, and get the unconscious professor to the Academy clinic. Surprisingly, they acquiesced and left with their instructor while Adam ran back to Louise's room to grab her a change of clothes.

Funnily enough, they weren't actually given a punishment for detonating the classroom lectern other than making sure everything was sufficiently cleaned up in time for the next class to use the room. It had taken most of the rest of the morning (they'd had to skip the Blowhard's class), but they'd almost finished; Adam was setting right the last few desks, and Louise was wiping down the surfaces of the ones he'd already gotten to with a dust rag.

Louise turned to her summoned companion, a scowl forming on her face.

"Yes, okay? All of my spells explode! Be they fire, water, wind, or earth, regardless of geometric level, everything I attempt just blows up in my face! Are you starting to regret our 'partnership' yet!?"

Adam held up his hands, palms out toward the upset girl, "Whoa, whoa, take it easy. I'm not mocking you."

She looked at him with narrowed eyes, "…You're not?"

"No, I'm not."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"…Okay then."

They continued their task in silence until Adam began to shake his head in bewilderment. "Still, I can't believe it. All of your spells explode, and those idiots actually make fun of you for it."

Louise looked up in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you must have the patience of a _saint_. If I were in your position, I'd have turned them all into nothing but red smears on the wall a long time ago."

Louise looked away, a small, pained grimace on her face. "I thought about it once. But… I can't. I can't do something like that. Ignoring the fact that I don't have the stomach for such a thing, somebody with magic as useless as mine has no right to act superior to her peers."

Adam frowned. Did she honestly believe that? This girl had power, _real_ power, and she thought that her skills were useless? He could think of a _dozen_ career fields that she could excel in with nothing but explosions. How did that quote go? 'There is no problem that cannot be solved with careful application of high-explosives'. Yeah, he was pretty sure that was it.

"That's complete bullshit. Seriously Louise, think about it- _everything you point your wand at explodes_. Do you realize what people in my world would've done, the _lengths_ they would've gone to, in order to get their hands on someone like you? Granted, you'd have been used as a weapon, but you'd also have been treated like a queen!"

"I don't know…"

"Just _think_ about it! You could have a real future in the Tristainian military! I can see it now- 'Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière: The One-Woman Artillery Squad!'"

Adam grinned at the girl in front of him, "Your very _name_ is going to give enemy generals _nightmares_!"

Louise looked as if she were caught between telling off her companion for even _implying_ that she could be so significant and ordering him to continue praising her.

"You're just saying that to cheer me up."

"And? Did it work?"

Louise gave a small laugh at that.

"…Maybe. Just a little."

"Well good. But all the same, I meant what I said. You _aren't_ useless, regardless of what everyone else says." Adam turned to stare out the window, a strange look on his face. "But it does make one wonder…"

Louise cocked her head to the side in confusion, "Make one wonder what?"

The young man turned to face the blonde mage, suddenly serious.

"I don't know a whole lot about this world's magic, so let me know if I'm just blowing smoke here, but… well, every spell has its own element, right? Either earth, fire, water, or wind? Well, wouldn't messing up a spell give you some indication of the element of the spell you were attempting in the first place? Like, if you were attempting a fire spell and accidentally set _yourself_ on fire, or caused an earthquake attempting an earth spell. But if what you've told me is true, then your spells don't follow that convention at all. Instead, they all result in the exact same thing- a nonelemental concussive blast. There has to be a _reason_ for that, and I'm not willing to accept 'Louise is a failure at magic' as sufficient explanation."

Louise looked down in deep contemplation. She had never thought of it that way before. Was… was it possible? Could her partner be right about her not being totally useless? She looked up to face the young man in question.

"But what could possibly be responsible for something like my explosions? This has been happening ever since I first attempted magic when I was five."

The older boy shrugged, "No clue. Like I said, my knowledge of the Halkeginian magic system is pretty bare-bones. Maybe you need a specific kind of catalyst, or you have a nonstandard elemental affinity, or maybe you're just putting WAY too much power into your spells and overloading them with raw magic. I suppose it's even possible that a third party is somehow actively interfering with your spellcasting. It could be anything at all. We don't know."

A mischievous grin formed on Adam's face, "But don't you wanna find out?"

Louise didn't dare hope. After all, the teachers had already tried to find out what was wrong with her, only for them to give up after finding nothing at all. For so long, she'd accepted that she'd never be able to use magic the way she so desperately wanted to be able to. She hadn't been happy about it, not in the slightest, but she'd _accepted_ it. And now this boy that had so abruptly fallen into her life was telling her that she had _worth_ , that she could _be_ somebody. It was wonderful to think about, that her new… friend (her heart warmed at the thought of having a real friend after so long) could believe in someone like her so strongly, and despite herself, she began to feel the stirrings of _something_ deep within her chest. Something that told her that maybe, _just maybe_ , he could be right.

Louise began vocalizing her agreement, but was interrupted by a deep growling sound emitted from both of their stomachs simultaneously. The two looked up to face each other sheepishly, answering at the same time.

"Lunch first."

-)(-

"You know, the Academy teaches more than just magic." Louise spoke up as she and Adam arrived at the Academy Dining Hall, a massive edifice located in the dead center of the compound. 'Impressive' was one word for it, as were 'opulent' and 'grandiose', though Adam thought 'ostentatious' would've suited it far better. It was a sea of gold trim and white lace, accented with beautiful crystal chandeliers that glittered like the ocean under the morning sun. Cornucopias of fresh fruit were placed at regular intervals, servants were flitting all about the place according to the nobles' whims, and three of the largest tables he'd ever seen were stacked high with mouthwateringly delicious-looking food on ridiculously fine china. Each table was filled to the brim with students, seemingly divided by year, with cloak color acting as the year indicator (brown for first-years, black for second, and purple for third). Adam couldn't help but fondly reminisce on his high-school senior year prank where they'd taken all of the tables out of the cafeteria and put them on the roof, along with the principal's desk.

 _'Oh man, if these kids pulled something like that off…'_

"Hey! Are you listening to me?"

Adam turned to face Louise, meeting her pout and crossed arms with a sheepish look, "Sorry, got lost in thought. What were you saying?"

"Hmph. I was telling you about how one of the foundations of our education here at the Academy is the concept of 'nobles achieve nobility through the use of magic', and how our dining hall is supposed to reflect that."

"So basically, 'build it bigger and build it better, because fuck you we're nobles?'"

"Vulgar… but essentially correct, I suppose" Louise responded with distaste at her companion's word choice, regardless of how annoyingly accurate it may have been.

"Gotcha. What're the specs?"

Louise cocked her head to the side in confusion, "The what?"

"Specifications. You know, stuff like maximum occupancy, dimensions, building materials, brief history, et-cetera, et-cetera."

"I'm not sure… but I do know that it's been here since the Academy was built, and that we sometimes use it for large social functions."

Adam raised an eyebrow, "Social functions?"

"Formal balls, royal visits, school tours, and the like."

"I see." Adam answered before pausing for a few moments, "Does it have an espresso machine?"

"I don't… think so?"

"Lame."

Louise's pout intensified, only serving to make her look even more like an angry kitten. If it weren't for the fact that she was already a high-functioning emotional wreck with self-esteem issues, Adam could've had a lot of fun messing with her. Unfortunately…

"It's not lame!"

"Totally lame."

He just had to tone it down a bit, that was all.

"No it's not! See; look up there at the Alvíss!" Louise enthusiastically gestured up to the walls where a bunch of tiny statuettes of people looked down over the room's occupants.

"Yes, they're very lifelike." Adam observed, nodding his head in acknowledgement.

Louise regarded him with a sly smile, "If you think they're lifelike now, just wait until nighttime. They come to life and dance!"

If Louise thought that would impress her companion, then she was sorely disappointed. Adam scowled at her words.

"And now they're creepy."

Louise's face fell, "What!? They're not creepy! How are they creepy!?"

"Ever heard of the 'Uncanny Valley' effect?"

Louise shook her head.

"Well, basically it's a phenomenon that has to do with how any nonhuman entity that is sufficiently human _like_ is unsettling, and only becomes more-so the more humanlike it gets." Adam explained, pulling out a chair at the second-year's table for Louise to sit down in. "Mannequins are all well and good, but the moment they start moving under their own power is the moment I tap-out and run in the other direction."

Louise collapsed into her chair in disappointment at her companion's easy dismissal of the things that would leave most commoners speechless and awed.

"…You really don't like it?"

Taking his own seat beside her and looking over at his petite companion, Adam saw Louise giving him that kicked-puppy look and decided to throw the girl a bone.

Softening his features, he reassured the girl, "Calm down, it's a very nice dining hall. I'm just giving you a hard time."

Louise gave the older boy a small scowl, "Jerk."

Adam laughed at the half-hearted insult. "Guilty as charged. Though you should still probably learn not to feed the trolls."

Louise looked up at him, alarm etched onto her face, "Trolls? I thought you were human!"

Now it was Adam's turn to cock his head to the side in confusion. "Of course I'm human. Wait, are you telling me that trolls are a real thing in this world?"

Louise nodded her head, relief at the affirmation of her companion's humanity clear on her face. "Yes. They're actually supposed to be pretty reclusive, but I've heard stories of settlements along the Gallian border having their livestock raided by trolls."

Well then. Adam hadn't exactly been prepared for the revelation of the existence of other humanoid races. If they had trolls, then what else did they have? Fairies? Giants? Goblins? Elves? How many of these races were considered peaceful? Or, at the very least _not_ anti-human? He had yet to see anything other than (he was assuming) full-blooded humans at the Academy, so it was probably a safe bet that either the various other races didn't coexist with humans, or that they merely weren't capable of magic. Would that make them commoners? Or did the other races exist within their own separate social hierarchy? Only one way to find out, he supposed.

"Hey Louise."

"Hm?"

"What other races exist here in Halkeginia?"

Louise tapped her chin and thought for a few moments before answering, "Well, other than the trolls, there are bands of orcs that actually roam some of the plains of northern Tristain. They're… not very nice. They're known for attacking travelers, and villages in those areas sometimes have small children that go missing and are never heard from again."

"How do you know that the orcs are responsible for the missing children?"

"Supposedly, there have been instances in the past where groups of town guards would request the assistance of nobles to help clear out some of the dens. They found human bones. _Small_ human bones."

Adam grimaced at the gruesome image the young blonde was painting and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't be very fond of them. So what else is there?"

"Well, there are legends of Elementals- unbound Spirits that occasionally go berserk and can destroy entire civilizations if enough of them are gathered. But no-one I know of has ever seen one."

"Unbound Spirits?"

Louise smiled and adopted a lecturing position in her seat, clearly relishing the chance to show off her wealth of knowledge, "Spirits are extremely powerful entities comprised of pure elemental magic. They are not only sentient, but sapient as well, and are bound to a Focus; a specific location or artifact usually related to their element of make-up. For instance, an Earth Spirit may make its home in a mountain or forest, and a Water Spirit in a lake or river of some sort. Supposedly, it's the severing of a Spirit's bond with its Focus that turns it into an Elemental, depriving it of its sapience and leaving it to function on pure instinct. However, no-one has ever figured out how to successfully sever such a bond, as the Spirit will generally kill anyone who attempts such a thing."

"Are Spirits common?"

"They aren't exactly _common_ , but I wouldn't say they're rare either. You generally see small villages and settlements spring up around Earth and Water Spirit Foci because the surrounding lands tend to be very fertile and good for crops."

"And how do Spirits feel about humans?"

"Indifferent, for the most part. If you leave them alone, they'll usually return the favor."

Adam nodded his head in understanding. So far, it all sounded like your standard RPG flavor text and bestiary log entry. "Anything else?"

Adam was surprised by the look of fear that flashed across Louise's face as she shuddered before answering in a low voice, "The elves…"

 _'So they_ do _have elves here after all. And apparently that's a bad thing?'_

"What _about_ the elves?"

"They're a terrifying people that can live for far longer than normal humans. They inhabit the Founder's Holy Lands to the northeast and mother once told me that just one elf is able to match hundreds upon hundreds of noble mages in magical power."

Adam's eyebrows slowly crept up his forehead. From the sound of it, these Halkeginian elves were something else. Surely 'hundreds upon hundreds' HAD to be an embellishment of some kind?

"What makes them so powerful?"

"Their magic is… different. Nobles use their own willpower to shape the free-floating mana in the atmosphere into spells using our wands as foci, with larger and more complex spells requiring more willpower than smaller and simpler ones. Elves… they don't need willpower or wands at all. They're said to be able to commune with nature itself and have it conform to their wishes."

Louise shuddered again before looking up at the older boy sitting beside her, an uncharacteristically intense look on her face.

"I know that we've established our relationship as 'partners' instead of 'master' and 'familiar', but I want you to know this- If ever you encounter an elf, you are not to fight it. I order you to run away."

Slowly, Adam nodded his head. Apparently she _hadn't_ been exaggerating when she told him that one elf could take on hundreds of mages. Granted, he didn't exactly have an accurate frame of reference for what it would be like to actually engage in live combat with something like that, but videogames had taught him enough to know that enemies with unlimited MP and access to endgame spells that can be spammed indefinitely were generally things to steer clear of if you wanted to avoid sudden onset of death and death-like symptoms.

Louise shuddered again, then looked up with a curious expression, "So anyway, trolls?"

"Oh yeah, I'd almost forgotten how we got on this topic. Anyway, in _my_ world, 'troll' is a slang term for someone who intentionally makes inflammatory remarks to get a rise out of others. They don't do it out of malice; they do it because they seek a source of entertainment in the way that people react."

Louise's face scrunched up in confusion, "I'm not sure I understand."

Adam thought to himself for a brief moment then sighed, turning to face his blonde companion with a patronizing look, "Oh well. I suppose it isn't something a _child_ would be able to comprehend."

Louise was taken aback at that, but quickly rallied with a scowl.

"I'm not a child!"

"Sure you are. I mean, look at you! You're what, five-foot-nothing at the most?"

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…" Louise's face lit up in an angry flush at the older boy's sudden derision of her… _modest_ stature.

"I'll just have to explain it to you when you're older."

Louise had balled up her fists and was giving her companion her best death glare, only to deflate in confusion as he glanced at her and burst out into laughter.

"And _what_ , pray tell, is so funny?" The girl ground out through clenched teeth.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just… that was it."

"That was what?"

"Trolling."

"Huh? It was?"

"Yes." Adam grinned at the now confused girl sitting next to him. "I didn't _mean_ what I said, I only said it because your 'angry face' makes you look like the world's most indignant kitten. It's hilarious." At that, the young man continued his laughter at the sight of his young companion's flushed face caught somewhere between bewilderment and irritation.

It took a few seconds for it to click in her mind, but once Louise figured out exactly what had just transpired, then she too began laughing. They stayed like that for a few minutes, as every time they started to calm down, one of them would snicker and send them both off all over again. It was something they both needed after the emotional roller-coaster that had been the past few hours.

"I had no idea there was even a term for something like that." Louise exclaimed, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye. "Your world sounds like the strangest place. You'll have to tell me more about it later."

"Sure. Anytime, _kid_."

"Still," Louise's face adopted a teasing grin, "for you to say such things to your master… I'm afraid you'll have to go without lunch for this!"

"Yeah, yeah" Adam returned with a grin of his own, reaching for the leg of some kind of delicious-looking roast poultry, only to stop short upon seeing the awkward, guilty face Louise was suddenly making. "You can't be serious…"

"It's just that… well, neither familiars nor commoners are allowed to eat in the Alvíss Dining Hall..."

"Uggghhhhhh…" Adam's palm met his face in exasperation at the notion that he wasn't allowed to eat, or even _touch_ , the veritable feast that lay before him. "Then what am I supposed to do!? I'm hungry, dammit!"

"Don't worry!" Louise quickly tried to reassure him, "I'll just get one of the servants to bring you your own food!"

Five minutes later, Adam sat stoically staring at the small bowl of watery broth and stale bread that had been unceremoniously dumped in front of him.

' _stupidnobilitywithyourstupidmagicthisissuchbullshitIwannagohomeandeatrealfoodthisissounfairgoddammitfuckmylife'_

"Louise, what is this?"

"It's food…"

"Louise, my _cat_ eats better than this."

Louise turned to face the older boy in surprise, "You have a cat?"

"Yes. Her name's Jezebel. We adopted her after we found her rooting through our trash a couple years ago, and you're dodging the issue."

"Eh heh heh…"

 _*siiiiiigh*_ Adam pushed his chair out and slowly stood up, turning the face the younger mage beside him. "Look, I appreciate the thought… but I'm afraid this is unacceptable. If you're gonna get in trouble with the admins if I'm seen eating here then I'll just go see what I can bum off the kitchen crew."

With that, Adam left Louise to her meal and made his way through a pair of double doors into a large, circular, open room filled with servants running every which way. Crossing the threshold of the sacred ground, he inhaled deeply and indulged in the wonderful scents of fresh herbs and spices, slow-cooked meats, and freshly prepared feasts just waiting to be wasted on a bunch of spoiled kids who probably had no appreciation for the amount of effort it took to get all of it made.

Or maybe he was just hungrier then he'd originally thought.

"Damn, this place smells fantastic…"

"That's Marteau's cooking for you."

Adam whirled around in surprise at the sudden presence behind him, only to smile in recognition upon sighting the face of a familiar black-haired maid.

"Siesta! That's the second time you've managed to sneak up on me."

The excitable maid put her hand to her mouth and gave a small laugh, "Hello again Adam. I'm glad you aren't about to kill me this time."

Adam flushed in embarrassment as he recalled how he'd nearly run her through when he first met her.

"Like I said, I'm really, _really_ sorry about that…"

Siesta just smiled and waved her arm dismissively, "Oh, don't worry about it. It gave me a good story for the other maids. But I have to ask, what are you doing here in the kitchens?"

"Apparently, commoners aren't allowed to eat in the dining hall, so I just thought- *GRRRRMMMMBLE*

The two gave a start of surprise at the timely interruption of Adam's empty stomach voicing its displeasure.

"Adam, when was the last time you ate?"

"I think… about a day-and-a-half ago?"

Siesta's eyebrows raised in alarm, "Oh that simply won't do! Come, sit over here…"

The young maid grabbed Adam by the wrist and led him over to a table that lay off to the side of the kitchen, only to leave and return a minute or so later with a large pot of beef stew. Graciously thanking her for the food, Adam poured himself a bowl and took a bite.

And oh, what a bite it was.

Perfectly cooked and seasoned chunks of succulent lean beef caressed his tongue like the tender touch of a lover deferred, as smooth and savory broth swirled around in his mouth like a whirlpool of culinary artistry that left him in a blissful daze. Delectable spring vegetables crunched between his teeth, sending out a shower of crisp freshness that lit up his taste buds and left them tingling in ecstasy. So many tastes, textures, and sensations flowing into one-another, coming together in a symphony of flavor that GOD HIMSELF would've been hard-pressed to match. A hint of nutmeg, a dash of coriander, and Adam was in _heaven_.

Or maybe he was just _way_ hungrier than he'd originally thought. It was hard to tell sometimes.

Regardless, less than three minutes had passed when Adam put down his fourth bowl and breathed a sigh of contentment. Siesta watched him with wide eyes.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat so much food in so little time."

Adam turned to face the dumbstruck girl, a satisfied grin on his face. "Hey, when I'm jonesin', I'm jonesin' hard."

The maid probably had no idea what he was talking about, but she nodded anyway, appearing to get the implied meaning behind his odd vernacular.

"So, how do you like the Academy so far?"

Adam gave the inquiry some thought, before deciding to just tell the girl what he really thought of the place.

"It royally sucks."

Siesta gave a start at the brutal honesty of his answer, "You really think so?"

Adam gave the girl a deadpan stare. "Siesta, I can count the number of _decent_ people I've met since I got here on one hand. Your society's whole way of thinking is screwed up. The commoners are seen as little better than animals by people who have no business looking down on _anyone_ , much less people who work as hard as you servants seem to, and I don't even want to _approach_ the topic of what those bastards have done to Louise. I can't speak about people I've never met, but if I had to take a guess then I'd put money on it being like that across the whole continent, and that's _definitely_ not okay. My worl-… _homeland_ may not have been perfect, but at least we understood that subjugating people like this is _wrong_."

Siesta's jaw had dropped at some point during his mini-rant, and it took Adam snapping his fingers in front of her face to get her to snap out of it. She blinked a few times and stared at him with wide eyes.

"That's… I… _Wow_. I've never heard anyone talk about the nobility like that before. Did something… happen?"

"I haven't exactly been having the best day."

"I understand _completely_." The young maid said standing up from the table. "Anyway, it was wonderful talking to you again, but I really have to get back to work now. I'll see you later, Adam!"

Adam nodded, but spoke up before she could leave, "Need any help?"

Siesta gave a start of surprise at his offer, "You want to?"

Adam nodded again in confirmation, "I figure manual labor should be an acceptable form of payment in return for you preventing my slow, agonizing death by starvation."

Siesta gave him a look that spoke of equal parts worry and sympathy, "Starvation? Is Miss Vallière not feeding you?"

Adam offered the concerned girl a reassuring grin, "On the contrary, she's eaten just about as much as I have in the time that I've been here. Other stuff just keeps getting in the way of meals."

Siesta looked somewhat relieved at the boy's words. After all, Adam seemed so nice, and she didn't know how much she'd be able to help him if he was being mistreated by his master.

"In that case, we can ask the Head Chef if there's anything for you to do."

Adam was led over to a large, portly, and surprisingly rugged-looking man garbed in a stereotypical chef's uniform. He was leaning over a large pot of what appeared to be soup, and had just sampled the dish when Siesta spoke up.

"Head Chef Marteau!"

The man turned around and smiled upon sighting the young maid. "Aye, there somethin' I can do fer ye, Siesta?"

"This is Adam," the freckled girl gestured to the older green-eyed boy at her side, "the one that the young Miss Vallière summoned yesterday. I gave him some of the leftover stew, and he was wondering if there was anything he could do as repayment for 'preventing his slow, agonizing death by starvation', as he said."

"That so?" the chef inquired, rubbing his beard in contemplation, surveying the young man before him. "So yer the one that almost ran the young lass 'ere through, eh?"

"Dammit, how many times am I going to have to apologize for that?"

"Peace, lad. I'm jus' messin' with ye. Now tell me- can ye cook?"

Adam responded with a noncommittal shrug. "I can follow a simple recipe with varying degrees of accuracy and success. Does that count?"

Marteau gave a hearty laugh at that and shook his head. "Nay, but I'll give ye points fer honesty. And fer at least bein' better than those damn nobles. Hand 'em a ladle and they'd start wavin' it about like a damn wand, I tell ye. Here, if yer really wantin' to make yerself useful, you can take this an' help Siesta serve dessert." the chef exclaimed, handing Adam a large silver platter covered in various confectionary treats.

A few minutes later, Adam and Siesta were back out among the students in the dining hall proper, shuffling this way and that way, placing all manner of cakes and pies in front of the noble children that so desired them. To Adam, it was strangely reminiscent of his first job, where he'd bused tables at an upscale Italian restaurant that his neighbors owned.

' _Good times… I wonder how Mr. and Mrs. Guidotti are doing.'_

It was then that Siesta pointed out the small glass bottle that had just fallen out of the back pocket of a noble sitting a few feet away. Adam quickly noticed that it was the same blond-haired prick with the rose from Chevreuse's class. Adam himself had been fully prepared to leave it right where it was (it wasn't _his_ fault the kid couldn't keep better track of his stuff), but Siesta swiftly retrieved it from where it had fallen and attempted to return it to its owner.

"Pardon me milord, but I believe you dropped this."

The blond boy, _Guiche_ Adam distastefully remembered ( _'who names their kid 'Guiche' anyway?'_ ), spared a glance at the object held within the maid's outstretched hand, his eyes widening in clear recognition.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You're mistaken, servant."

"B-But milord, I watched it fall from your pocket…"

"Hey Guiche, isn't that Montmorency's perfume? Why do you have that?" the same heavyset boy who'd insulted Louise earlier spoke up from across the table. After a few moments, a dark-brown haired boy on his left spoke up as well.

"Hey, yeah! She's supposed to be really possessive of that stuff. If you have that then… does that mean you and Montmorency are dating?"

Guiche grew more flustered at the boy's words, "Y-you shouldn't make such assumptions; people may get the wrong idea! After all, a rose such as I blooms for the pleasure of many!"

' _Oh God, gag me with a fucking spoon. This kid doesn't_ really _believe that he can pull that crap, does he?'_

"I dunno Guiche; I think you just don't want to admit that you and Montmorency are together."

Suddenly, Guiche slammed his hands on the table and violently stood up from his seat.

"You are mistaken! It does not belong to me!"

"What doesn't belong to you, Guiche?"

Instantly, all the blood drained from the fop's face as he turned around to meet the eyes of a black-cloaked girl, slightly shorter than him, with her blonde hair done up in long ringlets.

"M-M-Miss M-Montmorency…"

The girl, apparently named Montmorency, scanned the gathering and almost immediately focused in on the perfume bottle in Siesta's outstretched hand.

"Guiche… why does _she_ have that? That was a gift for _you_ and _you alone_."

"Um… well, uh… you see…"

"Guiche, you weren't referring to _my gift_ when you cried 'it does not belong to me', _**were you**_ _?_ "

"O-Of course not, Miss Montmorency! How could you accuse me of such a thing?"

Montmorency regarded the now-sweating boy in front of her for a few seconds before sighing, "It's just… I've been hearing some highly unsavory rumors about you making moves on a first year, and I had to make sure you weren't… doing things I wouldn't approve of behind my back."

Quickly recomposing himself, Guiche whipped out that rose-wand of his and posed in a way that made some of the surrounding girls swoon and made Adam throw up in his own mouth a little.

"Why, Miss Montmorency! You need never fear such a thing from Guiche de Gramont! There is room for none but you in my heart, and I cannot tell a lie before your eyes."

Montmorency smiled and lit up in a luminescent blush, and Adam's desire for mind bullets returned with a roaring vengeance.

' _Seriously? Is_ nobody _going to say anything? This guy's a total dirtbag! Why the hell can't she see that he's playing her like a damn fiddle!? Was_ I _that blind back then?'_

"Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there-"

"Lord Guiche! Lord Guiche!"

Adam cut off and the color drained from the blond fop's face for a second time as his head whipped around to face the young, freckled brunette in a brown cloak running up to him, a covered basket held in her arms.

"K-K-Katie!? W-What are _you_ doing here!?"

' _Oh God, please please_ PLEASE _let this_ actually _be happening right now.'_

"Lord Guiche! I made some of those soufflés that you expressed such interest in last night, and I thought you might like some!" the young first-year girl expressed with a bright smile, and instantly the blush disappeared from Montmorency's face as she narrowed her eyes at the boy currently under scrutiny.

"Last night… Guiche, who is this? And what is she talking about?"

"A-Ah.. th-this is… uh… I, uhhh…"

Katie was now looking back and forth between Montmorency and Guiche, a mixture of confusion, fear, and sadness settling into her eyes.

"L-Lord Guiche… what is going on? Who is this girl?"

"Ah, K-Katie… this is, uh…"

"I'm his _girlfriend_ , that's who!" Montmorency cried out in anger.

Katie turned back to the stammering boy, tears building up in the corners of her eyes.

"B-But Lord Guiche… you told me that your heart held room for no-one but me! That you couldn't lie to my eyes!"

Pausing his internal celebration of the fact that, yes, _this was totally happening_ , Adam realized that he'd actually been present for the sweet-talk that the brunette spoke of. Thinking back, he _did_ remember a flash of blond hair and talk of both soufflés and eyes (and even the name Katie!) when he'd been out on his stroll the previous night, testing out the physical enhancement his runes gave him.

"Oh _really_?" Montmorency ground out from between clenched teeth, glaring broadswords at the Gramont boy. "That's funny. He said the _exact same thing_ to _me_ not three minutes ago."

"No…" the young brunette dropped the basket in her arms and raised her hands to her mouth as the tears spilled over and tracked their way down her face. "L-Lord Guiche… you… but I thought… we…"

Turning away from the assembled group, the poor girl sprinted off to the other side of the dining hall, crying, before bursting through the front doors and exiting the building altogether.

Slowly, Guiche turned to face Montmorency, who had tears of rage in the corners of her own eyes. "N-Now Miss Montmorency, please don't misunderstand! I merely accompanied her to the forests of La Rochelle two summers ago! She is nothing but- _***SMACK***_

Guiche was sent reeling from the slap that Montmorency had administered to him, his jaw dropping in shock as the clear impression of a hand formed on his face.

"I trusted you…"

And with those parting words, the blonde girl turned and angrily stomped away, her face aimed at the floor to prevent anyone from seeing her cry.

Nobody moved for about twenty seconds, until Guiche stood up and slowly turned to face Siesta, whose countenance was now as white as a bedsheet.

"M-M-Milord, I-I am… I…"

" _you_ … _yOU_ … _YOU COMMONER_ _**SOW! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!**_ "

Adam saw Guiche's hand swing forward and violently strike Siesta across the face.

Adam saw Siesta hit the floor with a dull * _thud_ *.

Adam saw _red_.

-)(-

* _siiiiiigh_ *

Louise halfheartedly picked at the meal before her, nibbling from a large roast and occasionally taking small sips from the glass of wine off to her right. She was hungry, and she knew she should eat, but her mind was still stuck on the emotionally charged morning that she and her new friend had endured, replaying her… _episode_ over and over again in her head.

Lingering feelings of shame and embarrassment sat in her stomach like a stone, and she couldn't help but grimace as she recalled the sensation of Adam's arms encircled around her as she cried uncontrollably into his shoulder. What was wrong with her? All at once, her emotions had spiked and rendered her frozen on the spot, unable to move or think coherently. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't move, and she couldn't figure out _why_. She'd had similar attacks in the past, but they had never been that… _intense_. She'd always been able to hold it in until she could get back to her room and wrap herself up in her bedsheets, where no-one would judge her for being a failure in noble _bearing_ as well as noble _magic_. But this time? She'd been completely helpless to do _anything_ and she shuddered to think of what would've happened if Adam hadn't been there to drag her away from the relentless stares of her fellow students.

Adam. Louise had never been as thankful for another person's presence as she was for his that morning, but the more she contemplated the older boy the more confused she became. Why was he so kind to her? He'd said himself that she'd basically _kidnapped_ him away from his life, friends, and family. And yet, here he was waking her up without complaint, defending her from Kirche's harrying, laughing with her, _comforting_ her, and even trying to convince her that she was _more_ than just a failure. With the exception of his impromptu demonstration of that 'trolling' thing earlier, he'd been nothing but absolutely supportive of her, and she couldn't wrap her head around it. What did he stand to gain from telling her that she had any kind of worth? Was he trying to curry favor with the daughter of a Duke or something?

 _'No…'_

Louise rapidly shook her head, trying to banish the thought, the very _notion_ , from her mind. She didn't think she had it in her to deal with the possibility that the boy that had held her in that empty classroom for half an hour had done so with ulterior motives. No, she would believe in him. She would believe in him, just as he believed in her, even if she couldn't understand why he would.

Sighing once more, she pushed the half-eaten meal away from her and stood up, deciding that she should probably go look for her partner. After all, they were supposed to be spending the afternoon 'bonding', whatever _that_ meant.

As she walked through the dining hall, a _*crash*_ brought Louise out of her own thoughts. She was about to ignore it, as it was probably just a servant that had tripped or something, but stopped as she noticed the crowd forming over where the crash had originated from. Deciding to go and see what was going on, she pushed her way through the throng of students until she came upon a sight that made her blood turn to ice.

A discarded serving tray (obviously the source of the crash), Guiche lying on the floor and nursing what was clearly a broken nose, and Adam looming over him, his face contorted with rage and his right hand clenched in a fist that still dripped with the same blood that now flowed down the Gramont boy's chin.

' _Oh Founder, please tell me this isn't happening…'_

-)(-

Saying that Adam was angry would be like saying that the Sun was hot, or that the ocean was deep. Technically, it would be a true statement. Nobody would bother to correct you if you were to label those things as such. The fact of the matter is, the Sun IS hot. The Ocean IS deep. Adam WAS angry. Yes, it would be a _true_ statement. It just wouldn't be an _accurate_ one. Just like the Sun is infinitely hotter than just _'hot'_ , and the ocean unfathomably deeper than just _'deep'_ , Adam was so much more than just _'angry'_.

He was _**fucking pissed**_.

Adam had no qualms admitting that he was a naturally angry person. It was just the way he was, though he hadn't _always_ been like that. He was consciously aware of the fact that he had trouble controlling his anger sometimes, and that it generally manifested itself in violent outbursts. He'd been working on reigning in his emotions for years, but unfortunately, sometimes they still got the better of him. And he'd only ever been this _absolutely furious_ once before in his life. He didn't _think_ , he didn't _plan_ ; he simply _reacted_ , which is probably why he didn't even realize that he'd hit Guiche until Louise rammed into his side, tugged on his arm to get his attention, and screamed "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

"I punched the son-of-a-bitch, that's what."

"Okay, but WHY did you punch him!?"

Adam turned to face the girl beside him, not completely successful in his endeavor to master his anger, and pointed at Guiche.

"This bastard got caught cheating on his girlfriend and tried to take it out on someone innocent; someone who _happens_ to be _my friend_!"

Louise turned to inspect the servant that she'd previously overlooked. She too was on the floor, a large red welt standing out on her face as she stared up at Adam in shock. Who was she? How did they even know each other? Louise shook her head; that wasn't important right now.

"Look, Adam, even if the servant _didn't_ deserve to get hit, you can't just _punch_ Guiche like that! He's a noble! And you're just a commoner!"

"I'll let you know when I start to care."

Louise let go of the older boy's arm and moved to stand in front of him, trying to bring his full attention onto her, " _Listen_ to me! _You_ may not care about the nobility, but the rest of us do! I summoned you as my familiar, which means that everything you do reflects on me and on the Vallière name! You may have just started a blood feud between our families!"

Oh.

Well shit.

Now he felt like the biggest heel in the universe. He hadn't even _considered_ how his actions would affect the young Vallière girl. She had so much crap to deal with already, and now he might have just made things infinitely worse for her. He'd lost it, and now _she_ might be the one paying the price for his actions. That thought took the fire right out of him.

Then Guiche spoke up and put it right back in him again.

" _Tch_ , I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less from the _Zero's_ familiar. It seems your disgrace is spreading, Vallière."

Of course, it hadn't actually come out like that. The Gramont boy was barely understandable with his nose broken the way it was, and Adam couldn't tell whether or not he wanted to laugh or punch him again. On one hand, he'd gone right back to insulting them. On the other hand, he sounded hilariously stupid.

"I can't believe it, but punching you has somehow made you even _more_ annoying than you were before."

Guiche just growled as one of the students emerged from the crowd and pointed a wand at his face. What looked like water sprouted from the wand's tip and settled on Guiche's broken nose. Adam heard a small _*pop*_ as Guiche winced briefly, and frowned as the blonde adopted a haughty expression.

"Ahhh, that's much better. Now, where were we?"

Adam grit his teeth, "You were digging yourself into a deeper hole."

"Adam!"

He looked down at Louise's pleading face, and was instantly assailed with guilt. Yes, Guiche was being a dick, but he seriously needed to keep his cool. For _her_ sake.

"Come now Vallière, let the commoner _trash_ have his fun. After all, I'll be putting him in his place very, _very_ soon."

Adam scowled at the noble boy, "Put me in my place? Seriously? Tell me Gramont, is your ass _jealous_ of what comes out of your mouth?"

Guiche frowned as scattered giggles met the older boy's words before once more assuming a superior leer.

"Very funny, plebeian. But it seems I'm going to have to teach you the _proper_ etiquette for commoners to assume when addressing a noble such as I. I will _beat_ some respect into you if that is what it takes. You will meet me in the Vestry Court in thirty minutes for a duel."

"Guiche! You know that's not allowed! Students are forbidden from dueling on Academy grounds!" Louise cried out in alarm. She was growing paler by the second, and Adam's inability to calm himself was _not_ helping the situation at all.

"Students are forbidden from dueling _each other_ , Vallière. There is no rule that says a student cannot duel a familiar or a commoner."

"That's… that's only because it's never happened before!"

"Regardless, your familiar has stained my honor, and I _will_ take the reparations out of his hide."

Guiche turned away from the panicking girl to face her emerald-eyed companion.

"So, what'll it be, plebeian?"

Adam regarded the boy in front of him. It was _unbelievably_ tempting to agree to the duel, just so that he'd have a legitimate excuse to pulverize the little prick without incurring the wrath of the local power structure. No-one else knew about his rune-enhancement, so he'd at least have that going for him. But Louise was almost in tears again, and he knew he'd already caused her enough trouble. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for another breakdown. But still, he couldn't let Guiche's actions go unpunished. He'd hurt Siesta. He'd hurt a _friend_ , and if there was one thing Adam valued it was his friends.

Yes, the boy would have to answer for his crimes.

 _'Damn Guiche, and damn these 'holier than thou' nobles. I bet they wouldn't last_ one day _living as a commoner!'_

Adam stopped.

 _'Wait a minute…'_

A plan began to take shape. Details began to form and coalesce into stages. A goal was set. It wouldn't fix everything, but if he could pull it off…

 _'Yes… that could work…'_

No, it WOULD work. He would make _sure_ it would.

" _Just_ a duel, you say? How _dull_." Adam finally spoke up, earning surprised looks from everyone within earshot. "How about we make it a little more… _interesting_?"

Louise grabbed her companion's arm again, "Adam, what are you doing!?" She didn't receive an answer, as both boys were thoroughly focused on each other.

"Oh? What did you have in mind?"

 _'Hook.'_

"A bet. A gamble, a stake. A _wager_ , if you will. Surely a noble such as yourself would enjoy an honorable game of skill?"

Louise was now staring openmouthed at the older boy. Where was _this_ coming from!?

Guiche regarded the green-eyed familiar before him for a brief moment before responding, "Speak, commoner."

 _'Line.'_

Adam offered the blond boy a cordial smile, "Oh, it's quite simple really. The loser of our duel just has to do whatever the winner says for a full month."

Silence reigned for the better part of a minute before Guiche doubled over and burst out into laughter.

"AHAHAHHAHHAHHAHAahaahaahaha, Oh… Oh my… Ah ahah… oh this is too rich! Is the Zero so terrible a master that you'd leap at the first opportunity to enter the service of another? Hah hahhah ah… magnificent! I accept your wager!"

 _'Aaaaaaaaaannnnnd sinker.'_

"In that case, I accept your challenge."

"No! Adam, please stop this!" Louise was begging now. She couldn't understand why Adam was doing this! Had she been wrong about him after all? Had she been misreading him the whole time?

"Wonderful! Then we will meet in the Vestry Court in thir-"

"Ah-ah-ah," Adam interrupted, waving his finger at the boy. "Cool your jets there, Sparky."

Adam turned to his petite companion, "Louise, correct me if I'm wrong, but it is generally the prerogative of the _challenged party_ to set the conditions of a duel, is it not?"

Silence reigned once more as Louise stared at him in confusion before her eyes suddenly widened in understanding. She slowly turned to look at Guiche, whose eyes had adopted similar proportions.

"Yes… it is…"

Adam regarded the blond boy with a feral grin, "Excellent."

Adam paused for effect, and oh what an effect it had. Guiche looked like he'd been slapped again, and it was as if the entire crowd had inhaled as one, every single person holding their breath in silence as they waited for the uppity commoner within their midst to say something. What would his conditions be? Would he intentionally hinder Guiche in some way? Would he prevent Guiche from using magic against him? Under normal circumstances, a noble wouldn't hesitate to use their magic against a commoner (it was their right as nobles under the laws of Founder Brimir after all), but the Duelist's Code was not to be taken lightly. If Guiche wanted to maintain any level of esteem with his peers, he would have to abide by any handicaps Adam chose to impose. Even if he forbade the use of magic. And Guiche knew that. Rage slowly crept into his features, and his balled fists started shaking as he came to the understanding that he'd been played, and that he was too far in to back out now. He was a noble at the mercy of a commoner, and Adam _almost_ gave in to his desire to watch Guiche explode in response to a prohibition of magic.

Too bad that wasn't part of the plan.

"… In that case, I have no complaints about your choice of venue. I'll see you at the Vestry Court in half-an-hour."

Had this been some sort of clichéd anime, the crowd would've face-vaulted at his words. Instead, they just stared at him incredulously. That was it? He'd made it a point to remind them all that he could impose any condition he wanted, only to impose no condition at all? The more perceptive among them immediately picked up on the subtext of such a gambit- that Adam was essentially declaring that he could beat Guiche regardless of whether he was dueling with a blade or a wand. Most of the crowd scoffed, and some even laughed at the 'delusional commoner'.

But a few of them looked on in uncertainty. Who was this commoner that boasted such skill as to defeat a mage in live combat?

"Yes… very well… Vestry Court in half-an-hour it is." Guiche glared at the older boy in suspicion, before turning and walking away through the crowd that parted for and followed after him.

Adam breathed a sigh of relief. So far, the plan was going smoothly. He'd gotten Guiche to agree to the bet, and his performance had pretty much guaranteed that the duel would draw a large crowd. All that was left was…

"Why?"

A spike of guilt piercing his gut, Adam turned to face his companion. The various emotions playing on her visage did nothing to assuage it.

Louise's expression spoke of hurt and anger, fear and worry, sadness and resignation; each serving to make Adam's guilt intensify. But by far, the emotion that hit the hardest was the betrayal in her amber eyes.

"Why did you do that? Was what he said true? Are you really that desperate to escape me? Has everything you've said to me been a _lie_?"

Adam shook his head. "No, Louise. Everything I said was the truth."

"WHY then!? Why are you doing this!?"

"Because I have to."

"NO YOU DON'T! You don't have to do _any_ of this! I know you're angry that he hit the servant girl, but you could've easily resolved the situation in a way that wouldn't get you _killed_!"

Adam shook his head again, a troubled look on his face. "It's not just about how he hit Siesta, though that is a factor. It's just… he _irks_ me. Everything about that guy just makes me angry. That cocky smirk of his, the casual infidelity, the arrogant way he talks, the way he looks down on others, the way he shows off with that stupid rose of his, the way he treats commoners as if they were something he could scrape off his shoe just because they were born into different circumstances… I have to do this because I can't accept him. I can't accept anything about him. So I'm going to knock him down a peg or three, and show him that the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And he _will_ fall."

Adam placed a reassuring hand on Louise's shoulder.

"I know we just met, so I won't ask you to trust me on this. You don't even have to believe in me. All I want is a chance. A chance to prove myself, to both you and the rest of those haughty bastards."

Louise looked conflicted, as if she _wanted_ to believe in her companion, in her friend, but she couldn't bring herself to.

"A commoner can't beat a noble. He's going to kill you."

Louise bowed her head, her voice suddenly a whisper, "I don't want you to die… you're all I have at this school..."

Adam sank down to the floor so that he could look her in the eyes, "A man from my world once said: 'I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees'. I have no intention of dying, of _that_ you can rest assured. But if I'm going to live in this world, then I'm _not_ going to do it on my knees. I _have_ to do this."

"…Who said that?"

A small grin grew on Adam's face at the inquiry, "No idea."

Louise gazed into the bright emerald eyes of the boy in front of her and saw many things. She saw concern, though whether it was for her or for himself she could only speculate. She saw the pain of separation from the people he cared about. She saw anger at Guiche's actions and mannerisms. But mostly, she saw determination; an iron will that she instinctively knew no amount of nobility or social discrimination would be able to crush.

Louise thought back to the internal debate she'd had earlier. Hadn't she already decided that she would believe in her friend as he believed in her? Would she go back on that decision so soon after making it? Slowly, she nodded her head.

"Alright. I'll believe in you."

Suddenly, she hardened her gaze and spoke in a harsh tone. "But you better win, you hear me? No familiar of _mine_ is going to lose to that skirt-chasing jerk." She then turned about-face and followed after Guiche and the rest of the dispersed crowd.

Adam answered to himself, "Oh, don't worry. I've got _plans_ for that boy. And speaking of said plans…"

Adam turned to the maid, who didn't appear to have moved a muscle throughout the entire exchange. She still stared at him, her jaw hanging in shock at the commoner boy who'd _punched a noble in the face without hesitation_. He reached out a hand to help her up.

"Let's go, Siesta. I wanna talk to you about something."

-)(-

Jean Colbert burst through the double doors of the Headmaster's Office.

"Old Osmond sir! You need to see this!"

The wizened headmaster looked up from the paperwork his secretary had dumped on him and observed the out-of-breath professor in front of him in amusement.

"Oh? What is it this time, Jean?"

Colbert quickly made his way up to the large desk and held out the object in his arms towards the older man. "Have a look at this, sir!"

Osmond regarded the professor for a moment more before shifting his attention downwards and grabbing the book from the man's outstretched hand.

"A first edition _Familiars of the Founder_. Certainly a rare find; but if I'm not mistaken, the Academy library already houses a copy."

Colbert sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "That IS the Academy's copy. Turn to page 127."

The headmaster indulged the request, turning to the aforementioned page and scanning its contents.

"Hmmmmm… _Gandálfr_ … I see, I see!" the headmaster exclaimed, stroking his magnificent beard before turning back to the professor standing in front of him, "Now what exactly am I seeing?"

"Here, now look at this" the professor said, pulling a small piece of paper from a pocket in his robe before handing it to the older man.

Osmond observed the piece of paper. "It has the same runes on it as the ones in the book. So?"

Colbert pointed to the piece of paper still grasped in the headmaster's hand.

"I didn't copy those down from the book. They were on the back of that familiar's hand; the familiar that the young Miss Vallière summoned."

"Ahh, yes. Such an interesting young man. But I fail to see your point."

"Fail to see…?" Colbert looked on at the old man incredulously. What did he mean he failed to see his point!? He would've thought it was rather obvious!

"Sir, that boy's familiar runes are the runes of the Gandálfr! That means that he _is_ -

"It doesn't _mean_ anything." Osmond interrupted the professor, cutting his argument off at the knees. "Just because his runes happen to be very similar to-

"Similar my foot! They're the exact same! They were even _glowing_ when he held that knife yesterday! You saw it as clearly as I did!"

" _Be that as it may_ , we have no _proof_ that he is anything other than a normal commoner boy. You're making him out to be some sort of legendary warrior, but need I remind you that this is not the first time you've come to me with outlandish theories and suppositions?"

At that moment, Miss Longueville walked into the office with a tired look on her face.

"It appears we've got a duel on Academy grounds. The students have all gathered in the Vestry Court, and the crowd's too thick for the teachers to get through. They're requesting backup."

Osmond turned his attention away from the now indignantly sputtering fire mage in front of him and sighed. "These foolish noble children will send me to an early grave, I tell you. I could've _sworn_ the Academy rules were rather _clear_ on the subject of students dueling each other."

"Well, that's the thing sir. Apparently, one of the participants isn't a student- it's a familiar. The same one that called the two of you 'half-baked mages' yesterday afternoon, if I recall correctly."

Osmond turned, and his eyes met Colbert's own intense gaze. Sighing, he reached under his desk and pulled out a scrying sphere, gingerly placing it on the surface of his weathered work-space.

"Oh very well then. Let's see what this boy of yours can do, Jean."

Longueville approached the duo in confusion, "Sir?"

"Don't worry, Miss Longueville. Jean here just believes that there might be more to the familiar-boy than appearances would suggest. Just watch with us."

Slowly, a picture came into focus within the sphere, and what the three saw left them bewildered. Miss Longueville was the first to break the silence.

"Is that…?"

"Yes, I do believe it is." Colbert answered.

"Huh. And are those…?"

"Indeed, they appear to be." Headmaster Osmond confirmed.

"I see…" the green-haired secretary trailed off, before voicing an observation that the other two present could only nod in agreement with.

"I'm not sure who, but _someone's_ about to get their ass kicked."

-)(-

"Are you sure about this?"

Adam turned to face the worried countenance of Siesta as she walked with him to the site of his upcoming duel with Guiche.

Striding through the entrance archway out onto the grounds surrounding the main tower of the complex, Adam grinned reassuringly at the girl.

"Does this look like the face of someone who's unsure?"

Siesta bowed her head before responding in a timid voice. "I know, it's just… he's a _noble_! Even with… _those_ , how do you know you can beat him?" Siesta exclaimed, gesturing at the objects the older boy had gone to collect before heading to the destination of his showdown.

In his right hand and leaned up against his shoulder was the same halberd he'd almost attacked the young maid with the previous night, and on the opposite side, a Western-European styled steel longsword (he'd found it mounted on a wall) was sheathed at his waist. He'd already tested it and confirmed that it got a reaction from his runes; further evidence that they responded to weaponry.

"I just don't understand how you can be so calm!"

Adam observed the girl in front of him. She was shaking slightly, and her eyes were shimmering in a way that could turn to tears at any moment.

 _'Wow. She's actually really worried about me. Didn't know I'd made that strong of an impression on her._ _'_

"Your concern is touching, Siesta. It really is. But honestly, I'm NOT calm. I'm _excited_!"

And he was. He was in another world, wielding weapons of old, about to fight a wizard in a duel for the honor of himself and his friends. Well, and to teach the son-of-a-bitch a lesson, but that was beside the point. There was little about the situation that _wouldn't_ be exciting to someone like him, who'd grown up reading stories about that kind of stuff. And honestly, that was another reason he felt he had to do this; the selfish, immature reason he'd elected not to share with Louise. Truth is, he really wanted to feel like one of those fictional heroes he'd loved so much as a kid. Did he have what it took to wield a blade for the sake of another? Did he have what it took to protect the things and people he cared about with his own two hands? Did he have what it took to proudly stand amongst those great men, even if it was only in his own head? Did he have what it took to be a capital-H Hero?

He had to know.

Slowly, they made their way towards the crowd of students, Siesta breaking off to go stand where he'd instructed her to.

 _'At least my performance earlier did its job'_ he wryly thought to himself. The crowd was far larger than one might've expected for a simple schoolyard brawl. Looking at the various students that parted before him, Adam saw cloaks of all three year-colors surrounding him, warily backing away from the bladed polearm leaned over his shoulder. Half the goddamn school had to be here!

Eventually, Adam made it all the way through the crowd and into the clearing in the middle. Looking off to the side, he spotted Siesta standing awkwardly in the front row next to both Montmorency and Katie, Louise (also in the front row) looking faintly green, Kirche looking on in anticipation from right behind her, and ( _'Teri? Teresa? No, what was it… Tara… Tar… Tab…_ Tabitha! _Yeah, that was it!'_ ) Tabitha, standing next to Kirche and reading her book again.

 _'Must be a really good book.'_

Adam turned away from the girls to face the blond boy who stood opposite him, rose in hand, with a scowl etched into his now blood-free face.

"You would sully this noble tradition with such _gauche_ weaponry? Why am I not surprised by the depths to which you would sink?"

Adam responded by planting the butt of his halberd into the dirt.

 _'Time to begin Phase 2.'_

"What, did you honestly expect a Mundane like me to show up to a fight with a magic-user like you _unarmed_? Do you take me for a _fool_?"

Guiche maintained his scowl for a few moments more, before relenting and adopting a condescending leer as he turned to address the crowd at large.

"Oh well. I suppose even a _commoner_ can have a point every once-in-a-while! I respect you for not running away, if nothing else. Now that you're here, we can-

" _Shut up_."

All was silent as Guiche slowly turned back to regard the armed boy.

"What… did you just say?"

 _'Here goes nothin'_

"I told you to SHUT UP YOU INSUFFERABLE _PRICK_!"

Widespread shock met the boy's words. Guiche's jaw hung loosely as the crowd held its collective breath.

"I don't appreciate people _lying to my face_! You don't respect a _'commoner'_ like me, just like I don't respect a WASTE OF SPACE like you! The only reason you called me out here for this was because you thought it would be EASY! Because you thought that you could just _WALK ALL OVER_ the uppity _'plebeian'_ and use a quick victory to _NURSE YOUR WOUNDED PRIDE_! _WELL GUESS WHAT!_ "

Adam gripped the halberd with both hands and swung it forward, leveling it at the dumbstruck boy. He could _feel_ the rune's effects surging through him, and he was glad he'd thought in advance to lower the sleeves of his hoodie to hide the glow.

"I am gonna _kick your ass_ , Guiche de Gramont; I'm gonna kick it up and down the Academy grounds over and over and over again. And when I'm finished, you're going to _repent_ for the things you've done. So no more grandstanding! No stroking your ego, or playing to the crowd, or chewing the scenery! If we're gonna fight, we're gonna fight NOW!"

Adam raised both his face and his voice to address all within hearing range.

"THE RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS: ONE-ON-ONE, TO FIRST BLOOD! NO TIME LIMIT, NO TAG-INS, NO HOLDS BARRED! SIESTA, _CALL IT_!"

"U-Uh, umm, b-be-begin?" the servant girl squeaked out.

Adam burst forwards, leaving a small depression in the ground behind him as he crossed the ten meters that separated him and Guiche far more rapidly than any normal human should have been able to, and thrust his polearm at the blond boy who staggered backwards in alarm. Swishing his rose-wand through the air, Guiche dislodged one of the petals, which then sank into the ground and spawned an average-sized (for a human) armored construct of either copper or bronze. It was female in form, and wielded a spear of its own.

 _'Summon magic? No, that doesn't seem like it would fit very well into the system of traditional elements… what was it that he called himself earlier today? Guiche the Bronze? Guess that means he created it, probably with earth magic.'_ Adam silently postulated before groaning to himself.

 _'Dammit, bosses that spawn adds are the_ worst _.'_

Not that it made a difference, of course.

Adam's halberd pierced through its chest like it was made of wet paper, and he swiftly lifted it up and launched it over his head like a catapult. It soared through the air behind him for a few moments before landing unceremoniously in a heap of bent scrap metal.

"You're gonna have to do better than that, Guichey boy!"

The blond snarled and swished his rose through the air again as he quickly backpedaled, spawning three more of the bronze golems. Adam brought the halberd down like a meteor, cleanly bisecting one of the newly formed constructs with the blade of the polearm, before wedging the shaft of the weapon between his arm and torso and swinging it around in a 360° spin that violently knocked away the remaining two, leaving them in a state much like the first had been left in.

The entire exchange had taken less than ten seconds, and he'd destroyed four of Guiche's creations with no trouble at all. Adam was not ashamed to admit that he was enjoying the fear and uncertainty that flashed across Guiche's face.

Adam returned the halberd to its position of leaning against his shoulder and addressed the blond mage, "Is that the best you've got? And here _I_ was, expecting a REAL fight. I guess that's what I deserve for getting my hopes up."

Adam watched as the fear left Guiche's face, only to be replaced by loathing.

"SILENCE, you commoner _scum!_ "

 _'That's right, get angry you bastard. Hit me with everything you've got.'_

Guiche whipped his rose-wand through the air for a third time, summoning seven of his bronze constructs, and sent them charging at the older boy that was making a fool out of him.

Adam grinned and met their charge with his own.

-)(-

Louise was mesmerized. Her partner did not duck and dodge his opponent's strikes so much as he _flowed_ around them, parrying and counterattacking to maximum effect. He weaved in and out of Guiche's golems with the grace and fluidity of a professional dancer, alternating between striking the weak points of distant enemies with the precision of a master surgeon and grand horizontal sweeps that would send multiple close foes flying away into heaps of scrap. It was a breathtaking sight, Guiche sending wave after wave of his golems at the older boy, only for them to break again and again over his deadly dance of steel.

How could Adam possibly be this strong? He said he was just a normal human! For that matter, why hadn't Adam _told her_ that he was this strong? Did he think that she couldn't be trusted not to spread the information? No, she didn't believe that he'd hide something like this for a reason like that. In any case, it seemed as if she had been worried about him for nothing. She felt the strangest combination of irritation and relief at the revelation.

Looking around, Louise noticed that all of the other students were similarly enraptured with her familiar's performance. Even _Tabitha_ had put her book away and was watching the proceedings with careful scrutiny.

"Oh my! You've been holding out on us, Vallière! To think you had such a fine specimen of manliness and you kept him all to yourself! And here I thought us girls were supposed to look out for each other." Kirche _tut-tutted_ from behind her.

Louise ground her teeth together, but managed to maintain a civil tone. "I don't know what you're talking about, Zerbst."

"Oh come now, Louise. I saw your little moment together in the dining hall earlier. You don't honestly expect me to believe that you haven't jumped all over that prime cut of man already, do you? Didn't you two sleep in the same room last night? I'll admit, you work much faster than I would've expected for an uptight Tristainian."

Louise turned to regard her red-haired classmate with a withering glare, "Unlike you, I have no desire to whore myself out to any boy that happens to pass me by. And I'll have you know that Adam has been nothing less than a perfect gentleman since he got here."

"Whore myself out? Why Vallière, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were _jealous_ of the fact that I've got all the attributes that boys flock to, while you have none." Kirche regarded the shorter girl with a sultry grin, crossing her arms under her sizable breasts in such a way that served only to accentuate them even more. "It's not _my_ fault that your bust size is zero, just like your magic."

Louise fumed to herself. Why!? Why did Kirche _always_ have to pick on her!? Didn't she ever get _tired_ of flinging the same insults day after day after day!? Even now, she just stood there in amusement, watching Louise silently rage. It was maddening! It was-

 _"_ … _a slang term for someone who intentionally makes inflammatory remarks to get a rise out of others. They don't do it out of malice; they do it because they seek a source of entertainment in the way that people react."_

Wait a minute.

Was… was that what this was? Was this what Adam had been talking about? Had Kirche been harassing her all this time because she thought it was _funny_? This was unbelievable! Who _does_ something like that!?

Well no more.

"You just keep telling yourself that, _troll_." Louise schooled her features and turned back just in time to see Adam throw his halberd like a javelin, sending it spearing through three more of Guiche's golems and almost nicking the boy himself, before unsheathing the sword at his waist.

"Troll? Is that the best response the _Zero_ can come up with?" Kirche returned, only to cock her head to the side in confusion when Louise ignored her completely in favor of watching Adam as he parried an overhand chop from one golem into the torso of another golem, beheaded both, and leapt forwards at another trio that had begun to advance on him.

"Hey, I'm talking to you Vallière!"

"Correction- you _were_ talking to me." Louise responded in an even tone, without even turning to face her. "Now shut up and watch my familiar put yours to shame."

-)(-

He was wearing Guiche down. He could _feel_ it. In the increasingly sloppy movements of his constructs, in the subtle quaking of his knees, and in the manic desperation with which he violently slashed his rose through the air over and over again, summoning more and more cannon fodder for Adam to tear his way through with gleeful abandon, it was clear that the fop was losing steam. Adam, on the other hand, had never felt more _alive_. It was as if his body was on autopilot, moving on its own to dodge and weave through the bronze constructs' attacks, responding in kind with power, efficiency, and precision that he instinctively knew a normal human could not hope to match. He was in control, but he moved on instinct that was not his own. He moved on the instinct of something _greater_. He'd even noticed that he'd been getting progressively faster, stronger, and more responsive as he got more and more into the fight. It was an intoxicating feeling.

Whatever the hell these runes were, Adam _loved_ them.

He swerved underneath a horizontal slash and removed the offending bronze construct's legs, before leaping backwards to dodge the thrust of a large pike. Dashing to the left, he jumped and rebounded off of an outstretched bronze greatshield, sending himself flying through the air and liberating the pike wielder's head from its shoulders before Guiche could command it to counterattack. Hitting the ground in a roll, Adam quickly regained his bearings and leaped forwards to open up another bronze creation from left shoulder to right hip. As its two halves fell backwards, it dropped the arming sword it had carried, giving Adam an idea. He reached down and picked it up with his left hand.

Now _normally_ , dual-wielding in live combat is a _terrible_ idea. Not only do you have to constantly keep track of which sword is where, you also need to have equal dexterity with both of your hands to make it work, which most people (naturally having a dominant hand) don't. You also lose any ability to block with either weapon, as grasping one weapon with two hands for added force is no longer possible. It's a flashy technique made popular in cartoons and anime that has close to no real-world application whatsoever.

And apparently, no-one had bothered to tell his runes that.

The wielding knowledge granted to him by the runes instantly updated itself to account for the additional weapon, and Adam could only laugh as more constructs moved to surround him. He raised his blades as his face split into a feral grin.

"Shall we dance, ladies?"

Silently, they charged.

And with steel and bronze, he met them.

Three came at him at first. One with a large two-handed broadsword, the others with metal bucklers and winged spears. He dispatched them with little difficulty, and quickly turned to meet the two that had moved to attack him from behind while he was distracted. Honestly, Adam was kind of disappointed as he methodically reduced them to piles of metallic body parts on the ground before him. It seemed as if Guiche was only capable of actively controlling up to three _maybe_ four at a time, with all others being placed under a sort-of 'holding pattern' until he could get around to issuing them mental commands. Though he had to give the young mage credit; his technique and battle tactics may have been rough around the edges, but there was definitely a glimmer of talent and potential buried under all that bluster and ego. Adam had just de-armed another bronzed attacker and Spartan-kicked it into its brethren (sisteren?) when he realized that if Guiche were smarter about how he actually used his forces, he could _easily_ have made this very difficult for him. Guiche may have even been able to _beat_ him. After all, the match was only to first blood, and Guiche clearly had the advantage of not actually having to fight himself. Paradoxically, that made Adam even _more_ disappointed. Guiche's attitude and outlook were holding him back not just as a person, but as a combatant as well.

Adam supposed that it was a good thing that Guiche's attitude and outlook were the very things he was aiming to fix.

Taking a moment to glance at the other boy, Adam silently observed as Guiche placed his hands on his knees and gulped for air, sweat pouring off his face in streams. Apparently magic wasn't just mentally taxing as Adam had assumed, but _physically_ taxing as well. As such, the blond boy's concentration was plummeting, and it showed in the almost comical way his creations drunkenly shuffled about. It was time to end this.

Adam slid past another stab aimed for his abdomen, burst forwards and decapitated the last of Guiche's constructs. Skidding to a halt, he turned to survey the battlefield. Scrap metal and discarded weaponry littered the cratered remains of the Vestry Court like the aftermath of a great bloodless war. The surrounding students stood open-mouthed, staring at him in catatonic shock.

Adam ignored them and turned in search of the strawberry-blonde mane he'd lost track of in his concentration on the fight. He found her standing with the ever-stoic Tabitha and Kirche, who looked as if…

' _Is she drooling?'_

Shaking his head to rid himself of the implications of a salivating Kirche, he focused in on the petite girl standing in front of her, staring at him with amber eyes full of relief, awe, and… was that _pride_ he detected? Oh yeah, that was _definitely_ a step in the right direction.

 _'Hell yeah! Who's a failure now? Not us! Not Louise and I!_ Suck it _nobles!'_

Adam sent the girl a confident grin and turned back to face the still-panting Guiche, who was glaring murderously at the commoner who'd shown him up so easily.

"You done?"

Guiche wiped his brow and staggered upright, his rose-wand held in a death grip.

"I will admit, you have surpassed everything I thought a commoner to be capable of. I have sent almost all of my Valkyries ( _'so that's what they're called…'_ ) at you, and you have successfully beaten them back. But I'm not finished yet…" Guiche raised his rose wand once more, and flicked the last remaining three petals onto the ground before him. Adam readied his swords once more, expecting to have to finish off the younger boy's last three creations before ending the match. What he _wasn't_ expecting was the goliath that burst from the ground with a mighty quake, massive claymore and greatshield in hand as if they weighed nothing at all. The armor that made up its body was over twice as tall as the others, more ornate than its predecessors' in some areas, but oddly warped in others. It looked like it had half melted, but didn't seem to be hindered or even slightly bothered for it. All in all, Adam had to admit it was a rather impressive sight.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this technique before I worked all of the imperfections out of it. Unfortunately, you've pushed me far enough to force my hand. Take solace in that fact as you die, _plebeian_."

As the bronze behemoth thundered its way towards him, Adam could only smile. If _this_ was Guiche's ace in the hole, then this fight was already over. Sure it may have been _physically_ more imposing than his other constructs, but it was slower as a result, and still suffered from a crippling handicap.

Namely, that _Guiche was still the one controlling it_.

Guiche was exhausted from the rapid fire earth magic he'd had to perform in order to keep up throughout the entire duel. He was running on fumes, and they both knew it. Unfortunately, Guiche still had no choice but to personally direct and command his remaining forces, so he'd gone for the intimidation tactic. Something that big had to be proportionally difficult to defeat, right?

Wrong. Because, again, Guiche was still the one controlling it.

He may have tricked out the hardware, but it was still running a shit-tier OS.

Adam tightened his grip on his blades in feverish anticipation, and felt the runes respond in kind.

Dashing forwards, Adam feinted off to the left and scored a half-dozen slashes on the giant's right leg before retreating backwards, out of range of the awkward swings of its giant blade. He repeated the process for the left leg, waiting just long enough for the large broadsword's strike to be almost unavoidable before dashing backwards out of reach. He sprinted off to the left again, strafing around the metal monstrosity before leaping upwards to strike at its back. He landed and quickly dodged around the huge greatshield that had been about to flatten him. Of course, attacks like that were generally of no use against enemies that weren't made of flesh and blood, but they hadn't been intended to weaken his enemy directly. Instead, the primary function of his hit-and-run tactics had been to piss Guiche off even further, thereby making his giant Valkyrie's movements sloppier and easier to avoid.

"Come on, Guiche! That Valkyrie of yours won't do you any good if it can't hit me! Or are you just trying to compensate for something with a construct that big?"

Adam was somewhat surprised when cheers met his words. Apparently, the crowd had finally picked a favorite; a decision that gratified Adam immensely, and infuriated Guiche to no end.

"SHUT UP!"

The goliath lumbered after him, broadsword wildly screaming through the air as Adam danced just out of reach every time it looked as if a hit would connect. Suddenly, he reversed directions, vaulting forwards and slashing again at the giant's weakened left leg, cleanly cutting all the way through it and forcing the beast down onto one knee and to use its shield as a brace to stay upright. Thrown off balance, the bronze colossus had no time to react as Adam leaped upwards and slammed the pilfered arming sword in his left hand right between the giant's proverbial 'eyes' and hung there. Seeking to remove the pest from his construct, Guiche ordered it to attack the older boy while he was vulnerable, only to watch in horror as Adam placed a foot on his trump card's chest and pushed off into the air, causing the blade that was meant for him to pass just underneath his airborne torso and right through its wielder's own neck. Adam landed in a roll at the same moment that the Valkyrie's head did and sprang to his feet just in time to watch the giant bronze warrior collapse into the dirt.

 _'The harder they fall indeed.'_ Adam thought to himself, recalling the words he'd spoken to Louise earlier that day.

Silence thundered in the ears of every onlooker in the Vestry Court. Nobody moved, nobody even _breathed_ as Adam nonchalantly made his way over to the blond that was now shivering at the sight of him.

"N-No! S-S-Stay back! Don't come near me!"

Adam responded with a silent grin that sent his opponent backpedaling until he inevitably tripped over his own feet and was sent sprawling into the dirt. Adam capitalized on the opportunity by erupting forwards and placing the tip of his remaining blade below his opponent's chin, just barely skimming the skin of his throat.

A predictably dramatic gasp from the audience met his ears. This was good. Everything was going according to plan. Adam had successfully turned a schoolyard brawl into a full-on _production_ with Guiche cast as the villain and with over half the school in attendance. He'd beaten Guiche (and rather soundly if he did say so himself), proving himself perfectly capable of going toe-to-toe with a mage at full power, and humiliating Guiche in the process. And if the fear in his eyes was anything to go by, Guiche was in a rather compromised mental state at the moment. Adam smiled to himself.

Yes, he would _break_ Guiche. And with the fragments, Adam would forge the boy anew.

 _'And now for the finishing touches…'_

"Well? Got anything to say, Guiche?"

"I-I… I yield! I concede this match to you!"

Adam nodded. "That's nice. Unfortunately, this match wasn't _to_ 'yield'. This match was to 'first blood', remember? It's not over yet."

All of the color immediately leeched from the blond's face as the older boy's words sunk in, but before he could even say anything Adam removed the tip of his blade from Guiche's throat and scored a shallow red line across his left cheek. A single drop of blood made its way down the young earth mage's face.

"There; _now_ it's over. And if I'm not mistaken, it's my win."

Cheers erupted from the crowd. The magnificent display of skill both magical and martial had kept them on the edge of their proverbial seats (as some had even levitated themselves to get a better view), but the non-lethal conclusion of the duel had washed away any fears that they'd be burying a classmate at the end of the day, and they rejoiced at the performance they'd surely be talking about days, if not _weeks_ , later.

Adam smiled, but raised a hand to cut them off once he noticed Siesta, Montmorency, and Katie making their way towards him, just as he'd requested of them after he'd left the dining hall to find them earlier.

Adam turned back to the now confused Guiche still lying on the ground, and adopted a mischievous smile.

"Now that we're through with pleasure, onto business; you remember the agreement we made, don't you Guiche? That the loser would do whatever the winner told them to for a month?"

Understanding and rage blossomed onto the younger boy's face.

"You…!"

"Yes, let's get started shall we?" Adam offered the approaching girls a cordial smile as Guiche slowly rose to his feet. Adam turned back to face the glaring blond boy. "Your first task is to apologize to Montmorency and Katie for being a cheating bastard and to Siesta for both hitting her, and for just being a massive jerk in general."

Guiche glanced warily at Montmorency's frigid glare and Katie's still-tearful visage, but growled as his eyes met Siesta's, causing the maid to emit a small 'eep!' and take refuge behind her emerald-eyed savior.

"You would have me beg the forgiveness of a _servant_!? Know your place!"

Adam merely raised his hand to his chest in mock-surprise.

"Why _Guiche_! Did we not make an _agreement_ , an honorable _pact_ to follow the other's command if we lost this gentleman's duel of ours? _Surely_ you don't intend to renege on your end of the bargain so soon? Oh, I _shudder_ to think what your ancestors would say if only they knew that one who bears the name of 'Gramont' was acting so _shamefully_."

Guiche trembled in quiet fury, his hands balled up into impotent fists at his sides.

"Even after all this, you would _mock_ me? You would _trample upon_ and make _light_ of my honor!?"

Adam's response was to swiftly backhand the boy back into the dirt. He addressed the boy in a low, even voice that echoed across the clearing nonetheless.

"You dare speak of honor when you have thrown yours to the _dogs_? No, you lost that right the moment you decided that _two-timing_ was an acceptable way to go about being in a relationship. You lost that right the moment you raised a hand in anger at a girl who works harder in _one day_ than you probably have in _years_. You lost that right the moment you attempted to take your anger out on a commoner that you didn't expect would be able to defend himself; a commoner which, _need I remind you,_ _JUST SERVED YOU YOUR OWN REAR-END ON A SILVER PLATTER WITH NOTHING BUT STEEL AND SHEER TESTICULAR FORTITUDE!_ " Adam thundered at the boy that was now shaking in fear, shooting terrified glances at the blade still held in his hand.

Adam reached down and took Guiche by the collar, ignoring the small scream he emitted and violently hauling him up off the ground and holding him in the air to look him in the eye.

"When I look at you, I don't see a _man_ , Guiche de Gramont. I look at you and see a sniveling, petulant _child_ throwing a tantrum and lashing out at others because he isn't getting his way! A real man _owns up_ to his mistakes! A real man _atones_ for his transgressions!"

Adam swiftly threw Guiche back onto the ground with as much force as he'd picked him up with, and leveled his best death glare at the ashen faced mage.

" _ **So get on your knees, and atone for your transgressions."**_

He graciously complied.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" Guiche flopped forward onto all-fours and looked up at Montmorency and Katie, whose faces were frozen in expressions of shock, tears streaming down his face. "I'm sorry I cheated on you! It was a terrible, dishonest, dishonorable thing to do and I'll never do it again! And you!" Guiche now turned to an equally frozen Siesta and bowed his head to the ground, "I'm sorry I hit you in my anger! It was wrong and you didn't deserve it!"

"Now was that so hard?" Adam rhetorically inquired, nodding his head in approval and smiling as he sheathed his blade, "I'll give you some time to get yourself cleaned up, but after dinner you are to report to Louise's room to assume your new duties. Siesta," he turned to face the servant girl in question, "I would ask that _you_ be there as well, like we discussed."

Slowly, Adam turned to regard the silent crowd surrounding them, before raising his voice and addressing them en-masse, "You are all dismissed!"

Turning about-face, he began to make his way back towards the school building, the crowd parting before him like the Red Sea before Moses. He felt, rather than heard or saw, a smaller presence join him at his side. It wasn't until they'd left the crowd behind and made it through the entry archway of the Academy that Louise looked up to speak to him.

"'With nothing but steel and sheer testicular fortitude', huh?"

"Eh heh heh…" Adam awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and laughed in embarrassment, "I'll admit, it sounded a hell of a lot cooler in my head."

 _*siiiiiigh*_ "What am I going to do with you? Stupid familiar…" Louise trailed off, unable to completely suppress the grin forming on her face.

Adam didn't miss the slight spring in her step as they made their way back to her room.

-)(-

Again, it was Longueville that ended up breaking the silence.

"Did that really just happen?" the green haired secretary queried in astonishment.

"Yes…" Old Osmond slowly brought a hand up to stroke his raucous locks, and spared a glance at the instructor that was now boring holes in his skull with an expression that _screamed_ 'I told you so', "Yes, I believe it did."

Slowly, he turned to face the one who'd spoken up first, "Miss Longueville, would you leave us for a moment? There is something I would like to discuss with Professor Colbert in private."

Longueville looked back and forth between the two men in confusion, but nodded and turned around to exit the room all the same. Once the door clicked shut, Osmond turned to the tenured fire mage with an expression of utmost seriousness.

"Tell me everything you know."

-)(-

 **AN: Holy Word-Count, Batman!**

 **But yeah, full disclosure- this chapter probably should've been up a week-and-a-half/two weeks ago. Unfortunately, two things prevented that from happening. The first thing that happened was I hit a brick wall at around the time I got to the dining hall scene. I knew where I wanted to go, I just couldn't quite figure out how to get there. So I stepped away from the story for a few days, did some soul searching (and when I say soul searching, I mean I went and saw** **Jurassic World** **like three times because** _ **hot damn**_ **is that a good movie), and came back to write when inspiration struck me. The second thing that happened was that after I broke through the aforementioned brick wall,** _ **I couldn't stop writing**_ **, as evidenced by the fact that this chapter is longer than every other chapter so far put together. So yeah.**

 **Now, there are a couple of things I want to address with this chapter.**

 **#1. Louise- If you hadn't figured it out already, then this chapter probably seemed like it was beating you over the head with the fact that Louise is** _ **very**_ **out of character in this fic. I assure you that this is completely intentional, and has a perfectly valid reason. That reason being that I don't actually** _ **like**_ **Louise's character. Noboru Yamaguchi created a teenage girl and put her in a situation where she'd been told** _ **all her life**_ **that she was a failure that wouldn't amount to anything, and that her magical skill was absolutely worthless to anyone. Her parents had canonically given up on her, electing to start teaching her marital skills instead of magical ones, and she has been ostracized by her peers for as long as she can remember. And then he made her a cookie-cutter tsundere with a Napoleon Complex. And I find that** _ **boring as hell**_ **. Therefore, I've decided to play Louise's character and circumstances completely straight, and explore how someone like that can grow and develop as a person. Hopefully I don't screw it up too badly.**

 **#2. Guiche- No, I'm not bashing Guiche. I actually do have major plans for his character, and those plans required that he be subjected to necessary amounts of ass-kicking. With any luck he'll turn out the way I envision him turning out.**

 **#3. Adam- I've been trying to drop small hints about his previous life every now and then, building him up to a full on backstory that should be happening sometime next chapter (probably). God knows that guy needs some context. But anyway, this was my first time writing a fight scene, and I'm actually kinda worried I wrote him as having a little too much bloodlust. Hopefully I didn't turn anyone off with the way that went down.**

 **And lastly, as of next chapter, this story will be published under a different title. When I started writing this, I didn't really take into account the themes of 'growth' and 'overcoming personal baggage' that I wanted to work with and explore when I named it. Instead, I just leapt at the first trite little one-liner that mentioned the word 'Void' (though I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one who's ever done this). Therefore, starting next chapter, this story will be titled** **Starting from Zero (another trite little one-liner, but a far more appropriate one IMHO; sue me if thou must)** **.**

 **Annnnnnnnd that's it! For now, at least. I'll probably spend the next few days editing this chapter for spelling, grammar, and word-flow before I get started on the next one. If you have any criticism (constructive or otherwise), then you know where to leave it!**

 **And as always, thank you for reading.**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither** _ **Zero no Tsukaima**_ **(aka** _ **Familiar of Zero**_ **) nor any of its associated characters and settings.**


	5. Making Friends for Fun and Profit

**Chapter 4: Making Friends for Fun and Profit**

Slowly, Adam trudged his way over to the large, shady oak tree that stood like a silent guardian along the perimeter of the Tristain Academy of Magic's outer walls. Upon reaching his long sought-after destination, the weary young man promptly collapsed onto the grass beneath its leafy canopy, grunting in relief as his fatigued and aching limbs gave a silent cheer at the chance to finally rest themselves.

 _'Where did I go wrong?'_ he moaned to himself, thinking back to the events that had started this whole mess in the first place.

It had been a little over a week since his duel with Guiche, and already he was lamenting the foolishness of ever getting himself involved in that situation without thinking things through. He was glad that he'd stood up to the boy for the reasons he had, and he would never regret helping Siesta. He was also extremely happy with the progress Guiche himself was already showing, taking to his new job with far less whining and bitching than Adam would ever have expected. No, his plan had worked out exactly how he'd wanted it to. Unfortunately, it had also managed to backfire _spectacularly_ , and in ways he never could've foreseen. He may have successfully proven to the whole school that he was capable of holding his own against a mage in pitched combat, but now there were first, second, and even a few THIRD year students _lining up_ to 'test themselves' against the 'Zero's Warrior', as the little dipshits had taken to calling him. He'd received no less than three-dozen challenges over the course of the past ten days, and the constant dueling had not only left him totally exhausted, but had also cut into the time he would've spent on his _other_ project- helping Louise to overcome her crippling self-esteem issues. She still had no friends other than him (though she and Siesta did seem to at least be comfortable around each other), and she didn't appear to be in any kind of rush to make more while he was out kicking ass and taking names.

As it was, he'd actually just finished a duel five minutes ago with a first-year fire mage who'd somehow ended up accidentally hitting himself with his own fireball. Adam felt so bad for the kid that he'd broken his own 'no retries' rule and offered to give him another shot in a couple of days.

Of course, that wasn't to say that Adam's winning streak was unbroken. He HAD won most of his matches, but there were a few times where he'd been blindsided by a spell that cost him the bout. One standout instance had actually been his first loss, three days after the initial duel, when a third-year wind mage had immediately detonated a few high-pressure air pockets he'd covertly spawned around Adam's head before the match started, knocking the older boy out in the first few seconds of the fight. When he came to, the third-year was being pelted with boos and jeers by the onlooking students for having used a sneak attack to win 'dishonorably'; that is, until Adam stood up, dusted himself off, walked up to his opponent, and congratulated him with a smile for his creativity and combat pragmatism. Since then, he'd noticed a significant shift in the way that various students fought. There was far less 'Attack!Attack!Attack!', and far more 'waiting to observe the opponent's movements before selecting the right spell for the job'. Adam had to admit to taking a small amount of pride in the way he'd taught some of these kids to fight smarter instead of harder, even if it left him in a state of near-constant weariness. C'est la vie, he supposed.

The second unforeseen repercussion involved his newfound celebrity status among the Academy servants. Every time he walked into the kitchens, he'd be assailed with cries of 'Our Sword!' as people rushed to make themselves useful to their fellow commoner who'd not only gone to bat for them, but also triumphed over a member of the nobility in their name. He'd stop by to grab a snack in-between Louise's classes, only to be sat down and handed a meal fit for a king by the head chef, who was apparently the leader of his little fan club. He'd walk down a hallway, only for every maid in it to stop what they were doing and curtsy to him. He appreciated their enthusiasm, he really did, but honestly it was just annoying. He'd done what he'd done to help Siesta (and to kickstart the 'Guiche Reformation Project' as he called it), not to be put on a pedestal by some of the only people in this school that he could relate to. He'd tried time and time again to tell them that the fanfare was completely unnecessary, but they'd just chalk it up to him being 'humble' and start singing his praises anew when, in reality, he was just too polite to tell them they were being obnoxious. At least Siesta had stopped when Adam had told her, in no uncertain terms, to address him like a normal person.

The final unexpected consequence of his duel with Guiche came in the form of flashes of chestnut hair and matching eyes staring at him everywhere he went. He'd only started to notice it a couple days ago, but since then he hadn't been able to _stop_ noticing it. In random hallways on the way to class, on the grounds of the Academy during his duels, in the dining hall as he walked into and out of the kitchens; everywhere he went, those brown eyes would follow, silently tracking him and his movements. He knew he wasn't crazy, as Louise had noticed the phenomenon herself and begun asking around to see if anyone knew anything about it. The fruits of her labor were just as baffling as they were amusing.

It was official: Katie was stalking him. And Adam had no idea what to do about it. Every time he tried to approach her she'd run away, and he just didn't feel like putting in the necessary effort to chase her down. At the moment, he was content to let the situation play out as it willed; either she'd lose interest and give up, or things would eventually culminate in a confrontation with the girl, and he'd decided that he'd simply deal with the situation if it came to that. For now, he just wanted to relax in the morning shade. He only wished he still had his phone on him. Two days after he'd arrived, Louise had questioned him about the device, responding with disbelief when he informed her of its communication and music-playing capabilities. So he'd slipped his headphones over her ears, queued up a song, and watched as her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. Initially, she'd demanded to know what kind of enchantments the device carried that would allow it to play music anywhere, but after giving her a brief overview of electronics and data storage technology (which had sent her head spinning, but ended the questions nonetheless) she'd pestered him for it incessantly for days until he finally gave in, showed her how to navigate the menus, put the thing on [shuffle] and [repeat all], and told her to knock herself out.

That had been five days ago, and he still hadn't gotten his phone back. He was _desperately_ missing his tunes.

Not that his week hadn't had its highs as well as its lows. Even without other friends, Louise was noticeably more cheerful than she had been that first day, and Adam had honestly enjoyed his discussions with Colbert; the excitable educator was hungry for knowledge, and far more forward-thinking than most others Adam had met since he arrived in Halkeginia.

 _'Who'd have thought I'd meet someone like him in a world like this…'_ he thought to himself, reminiscing on his second meeting with the man.

-)(-

 _-Four days previously-_

 _Adam stood in front of a nondescript wooden door set with iron braces, slightly annoyed with the amount of time it had taken to find it. For over an hour, he'd wandered the halls of the Academy looking for the place, only for another teacher to eventually inform him that his destination wasn't even in the main complex. After that, it had taken another twenty minutes to find the small outbuilding he'd been called to. Reaching up with his right hand he knocked, three short raps echoing throughout the grounds in time._

 _"One moment plea- *fwoosh* OH FOUNDER, NOT AGAIN!"_

 _Adam waited as muffled stomps, clatters, thumps, and various other chaotic noises made their way to his ears, before a harried-looking Professor Colbert dressed in a singed and slightly smoking robe answered the door._

 _"Yes, yes, what is it? What do you need?"_

 _Adam raised an eyebrow, "_ You're _the one that called_ me _here, Professor. I should be asking you that question."_

 _Colbert's eyes brightened upon recognition of the person that stood before him, "Oh, yes! Please, come in! Come in!"_

 _Adam stepped over the threshold, his eyes widening as they took in the strange furnishings. Racks and benches filled with bottles, test tubes, and jars cluttered most of the walls, stacks of books and cages housing various kinds of magical creatures took up much of the rest of the small building's open space, and a globe made up of smaller maps lay off in a corner. But none of the strange sights compared to how out-of-place it_ smelled _. The moment he'd entered the room, his nose had been assaulted with scents he had never expected to encounter in this world- oil, burning metal, smoke, and various other heavy and musky odors that all led Adam to an unexpected conclusion._

 _Colbert's laboratory smelled just like a mechanic's workshop._

 _"Don't mind the mess, I was rather absorbed in my experiments with a rare sample of dragon's blood and didn't have much time to tidy up before you arrived."_

 _"Dragon's blood? Is that some sort of alchemical ingredient, or are you talking about the_ literal _blood of a dragon?"_

 _Colbert smiled at the young man, "Both, actually. The blood of a dragon can be a very powerful reagent in the crafting of a large variety of potions._ This _however," Colbert held up a beaker of suspiciously familiar-looking green tinted liquid, "is said to have come from a dragon made of steel that fell from the sky many years ago! Fascinating, don't you think?"_

 _"Hmmmm… a steel dragon you say?" Adam inspected the beaker of liquid closely, before uncorking the bottle and taking a whiff, much to Colbert's alarm._

 _"What are you doing!? You could taint the sample!"_

 _"Gasoline…" Adam's eyes widened at the familiar smell of petroleum emanating from the beaker, "It's really gasoline… wait, are you telling me there's a_ downed plane _somewhere in Halkeginia!?"_

 _Adam quickly turned to face the professor, "Where did you say you got this stuff?"_

 _"I acquired it from a travelling Germanian merchant. I'm afraid I don't know where he came by it."_

 _"Dammit…" Adam cursed. Colbert's description of a 'steel dragon' that leaked gasoline could only be referring to an airplane. If Adam could just figure out how it_ got _to Halkeginia, then maybe he could figure out a way to get back home. Unfortunately, that didn't seem too likely to happen._

 _"Anyway, gass-oh-leen?"_

 _"It's a fuel source from my world. We used it to run things like automobiles and generators."_

 _Colbert grabbed his handy-dandy notebook and charcoal, sat down in a nearby chair, and looked up at Adam expectantly._

 _The young man just sighed. "Right, you have no idea what those things are. Generators use fuel sources to generate electricity, a sort-of 'controlled lightning' on a scale small enough to heat homes, power lights, and do all sorts of other stuff. Automobiles are… well, think of a horseless carriage that moves under its own power via an engine and is steered by a wheel that's been hooked up to the front axel."_

 _"A horseless carriage? Is that an efficient method of transportation?"_

 _"The faster ones from my world could reach well over two-hundred miles per hour."_

 _Colbert nearly dropped his charcoal, his eyes widening in shock at what must have been an ungodly high speed for the man to comprehend._

 _"T-T-TWO H-HUNDRED!? How is that even possible!? That's faster than all but the fastest wind dragons! And they're the only creatures in Halkeginia that can even_ approach _those kinds of speeds!"_

 _"That's nothing compared to some of the other stuff my world accomplished. For instance, we went to the moon."_

 _That time, Colbert_ did _drop his charcoal, along with both his notebook and his jaw._

 _"That's… I… but… how can… who would…"_

 _"Before you cream your robes, I should probably mention that we didn't actually_ find _anything of much value on the moon. Just a bunch of mildly interesting rocks and some admittedly gorgeous pictures of our planet."_

 _"Pictures? You mean like paintings?"_

 _"Kind of. We had technology that allowed us to instantly record still-life images. If I had my phone on me I'd show you, but I'm afraid I loaned it to Louise yesterday."_

 _Adam watched as the professor retrieved his note-taking equipment from the floor and frantically continued to write down everything they'd said so far. After a few moments, Colbert looked up to Adam and seemed to deliberate with himself for a moment before nodding._

 _"Mister Adam…-"_

 _"Just 'Adam' is fine."_

 _Colbert nodded again. "Adam, can I show you something? It's an experiment I've been working on for quite some time now, and I was wondering if you could give me your opinion on it."_

 _"Sure," Adam responded, following the professor over to a large object covered by a white sheet lying on a workbench, "but I have to ask- is this why you called me here? Just to talk shop with an offworlder?"_

 _"Eh heh heh…" Professor Colbert gave an embarrassed laugh, "I'm afraid it's true. I must confess that your world has me quite intrigued. I was hoping you wouldn't mind telling me more about it. Now…" Colbert removed the sheet that concealed his creation, revealing a steel box attached to what looked almost like a metal cuckoo clock and tubes leading to a large tank of some sort. All in all it looked rather unimpressive; still, Adam couldn't help but feel like he'd seen something like this before. But where? Where had he seen it?_

 _"This is the sum total of all my research into the potential of fire magic. This tank is full of water, and when I apply heat to the kiln it…"_

 _Adam stopped listening after that. After all, he already knew what it did and how it worked. He remembered where he'd seen something just like this before- the Smithsonian Museum, back during his eighth-grade class field trip to Washington D.C._

 _"You glorious bastard…" Adam interrupted the man, a smile of childlike wonder growing on his face, "Do you realize what you've done!? You've invented the goddamn steam engine!"_

 _"Engine? Didn't you say that your 'ottobeels' ran on engines?"_

 _"Automobiles. And yeah, they did! Granted they ran on a different_ kind _of engine, but the point remains that you may have just kickstarted Halkeginia's own Industrial Revolution!"_

 _Adam spent the next two hours telling the professor everything he could recall about his own world's Industrial Revolution, from steam locomotives to the World Exhibition in London's Crystal Palace in 1851, eventually leading up to an explanation of modern day technology in the Information Age. Colbert's own enthusiasm mirrored the younger man's, with both of them feeding off of each other's excitement, until Adam described the basic premise of a hypersonic jet and Colbert fell to his knees, his hands clasped together with an expression of pure bliss on his face._

 _"Oh, Adam! This is incredible! Magnificent! What I wouldn't give to be able to see the wonders you've described to me with my very own eyes! Truly, your world must have been a paradise!"_

 _The change in Adam was as immediate as it was profound. His shoulders slumped as the excitement drained from his face. He offered the professor a cynical smile._

 _"You'd think so, huh?"_

 _"Adam…?"_

 _The emerald-eyed young man sank into a nearby chair and addressed the now-confused teacher._

 _"Yeah, my world should've been a paradise. It should've been a world where everyone was happy. Hell, the technology certainly allowed for it. Unfortunately, there's an essential element you've neglected to add to the equation."_

 _Colbert stared at the boy uncomprehendingly, until his eyes widened in understanding. "The human element."_

 _Adam gave a nod at the man's words._

 _"Yup. Kind of annoying how we always manage to end up screwing ourselves over, huh? And with over seven billion of us, it wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence."_

 _"S-seven_ billion!? _"_

 _"Yup."_

 _Colbert stood up and regarded the young man with a serious expression, "I see. Your world must have had its own share of problems."_

 _"Yeah, and pretty big ones at that. Here in Halkeginia, the most prominent social issue would most likely be class relations, right?" Colbert nodded in confirmation, "Yeah, I thought so. My world didn't really have that. At least, not while_ I _was growing up. Instead, we had things like racism, political and religious extremism, hypernationalism, terrorism, apathy on a global scale, serious overpopulation, and many other problems. Don't get me wrong, I love my world just as much as the next guy, but I'm not too blind to see that for all the 'good' in my world, there was just as much 'bad'. A lot of those inventions I told you about? They were slowly killing the planet, causing nature to wither away in the more heavily populated areas. Those technological marvels you were raving about just moments ago were often incorporated into weapons of war, ironically all in the name of keeping the peace."_

 _Adam looked the professor in the eye, holding up his hand to display his thumb and index finger spaced just millimeters apart. "We came_ this _close to destroying the world once, you know? The Cuban Missile Crisis almost ended us all."_

 _Colbert blanched, "Destroying the world? How can such a thing be possible?"_

 _Adam thought for a moment before responding. "Imagine one of Louise's explosions."_

 _"Alright…"_

 _"Now imagine that very explosion, but large enough to take out the entire Academy twenty times over, plus most of the surrounding countryside."_

 _"Such a thing exists?"_

 _Adam gave a wry smirk at that, "It gets better. Now imagine that explosion also poisons the air and soil for miles and miles, making it so that nothing can grow or live there for decades, maybe even a century or so."_

 _"That's insane!"_

 _"That's a nuclear bomb. My home country, the United States of America, used two of its predecessor, the atom bomb, to end a worldwide war in one stroke."_

 _"How could you possibly justify using_ one _of something like that, let alone_ two!? _"_

 _Adam merely shrugged. "Honestly? We had no idea what it was actually capable of back then. The concepts of 'radiation poisoning' and 'nuclear fallout' weren't exactly thoroughly studied fields at the time. When we dropped the atom bomb, we dropped it with the foreknowledge that it was_ powerful; _that it would likely end World War II, thereby saving many more lives than it took, and not a lot else. It wasn't until after we had a chance to sift through the wreckage that we came to understand just how much destruction they were capable of. But even_ that _didn't stop us from improving on the design. We eventually went on to create the hydrogen bomb, and finally, the nuclear warhead. And my country isn't the only one that has access to such weapons. In my world, global politics is an exercise in preventative measures and compromise; we'll do pretty much anything to make sure that other nations don't resort to using their own nuclear weapons against us or our allies. Because if they do… well, there's a reason the term 'mutually assured destruction' exists."_

 _They sat in silence for the better part of a minute, until Colbert addressed the younger man in a solemn tone, a pained look in his eyes._

 _"It's a shame that, for all the good humanity is capable of, one of its greatest talents has always lain in self-destruction."_

 _"You sound as if you have first-hand experience of far more than your fair share."_

 _Colbert shook his head, "A story for another time, perhaps. Although, I can say with certainty that I've never seen devastation quite on the scale you've described to me. Yours does not sound like a kind world, Adam."_

 _Adam could only laugh at such an observation. "Hehehehe… no, I suppose it wouldn't. Truly, mine was a wonderful world, Professor…" Adam trailed off, a faraway look on his face as he turned to gaze out the window and off into the sky._

 _"It was wonderful. But it was not kind."_

-)(-

Despite the somber conclusion to their second meeting, Adam had returned to the professor's workshop every evening since. They'd already spent hours discussing more of the technological advancements and cultural differences that Adam's world had to offer, and even improved on a few of Colbert's own inventions when inspiration struck.

Adam had never been a gearhead in his own world; he knew how to change a tire, how to jump a battery, how to change oil- basically all of the things a responsible vehicle owner should know how to do. But the more he tinkered with Colbert's machines, the more he came to realize just how useful a working knowledge of basic modern mechanics would be in Halkeginia. These people seemed to be stuck in the Middle Ages technology-wise, but at the rate he and the professor were going they'd have a fully functioning internal-combustion engine within a month or two. It was mind-blowing, in its own way.

Adam lost track of how long he'd been lying there under the cool shade of the oak tree, floating in a half-conscious state as his tired body rested itself. His mind wandered, flitting like a bird through half-remembered impressions of colors and sounds; the flash and hiss of steel in his hands, so unnaturally _natural_ now that he had those runes to give him an edge; wide, excited eyes of deepest black, sparkling as he regaled their owner with tales from his home world; the quiet scratching of charcoal against a well-worn notebook; a tearful, smiling face crowned with nearly-pink hair; a shimmering green portal, floating in midair as he leaped from a bridge to… do what? Why exactly had he jumped from the bridge that day? He'd been trying to… get somewhere. Yes, that felt right. He'd been trying to get somewhere because he was… late for something? What was he late for? He wracked his brains, but the answer to that particular question continued to elude him.

 _'Ah well, couldn't have been all that important.'_

Adam quickly wrote off his forgetfulness as insignificant and returned to enjoying the mottled sunlight streaming through the leafy canopy above him as the warm, rhythmic breeze blew across his face.

 _'Wait a minute… warm I can understand, but_ rhythmic? _'_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _'Oh SHIT!'_

Adam's eyes flew open and were greeted with the sight of rows and rows of dagger-like fangs staring back at him as a big blue dragon expressionlessly observed him, its snout less than a foot away from his face. Neither of them moved for what felt like hours (but were probably seconds), as Adam's mind slowly unfroze and responded the only way it could, given the situation.

" _AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!_ " the emerald-eyed boy screamed, his eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets as he rocketed backwards into the tree and raised his hand in a misguided attempt to ward off the scaly giant.

 _'Oh God, please don't eat me! Drem, nonvul dovah! Familiars are friends, not food!'_

Predictably, the dragon ignored the young man's silent pleas for clemency and leaned its head towards the now trapped boy. Adam closed his eyes in the face of what was sure to be his untimely demise as the dragon slowly opened its mouth…

…and licked him.

"Eh?"

Adam felt the surprisingly silky feel of the great beast's tongue once more slather the side of his face with saliva, and slowly peeked his eyes open to regard the dragon. It was staring at him with its tongue hanging out of its mouth and panting, just like…

 _'No friggin' way…'_

Slowly, Adam reached out towards the cerulean behemoth and placed his hand on its snout. When it didn't immediately attempt to render his outstretched limb into so much midmorning snack, he lightly started rubbing his hand along the creature's scales, causing the beast to emit a strange guttural purr before it leaned in even further and nudged him in his torso.

"Oh wow, your nothing but a big puppy, aren't you?" Adam exclaimed as the adrenalin-high slowly wore off, "A scaly, school bus-sized puppy… with knives for teeth…"

Adam sighed at the sheer absurdity of the one-man circus act his life had become before returning to his petting of the dragon with gusto. It began its strange pseudo-purring once more, before finally just lying down with its head in Adam's lap. It seemed to like getting scratched along its eye ridges the most.

The two stayed like that for a few minutes before Adam spoke up, "So you're a familiar too, right? Do you have a name?"

The dragon glanced up and let out a short "kyuui!"

"Your name's 'Kyuui'?"

The dragon shook its head at that, "Kyuui! Kyuui kyuui, kyuui!"

"Uh huh…"

"Sylphid."

Once more, Adam nearly jumped up in surprise at the sudden presence off to his left. That blue-haired girl, Tabitha, was sitting only about a foot and a half away, leaning up against the trunk of the tree and reading a book. How long had she been there? For that matter, how long had _he_ been there?

"Sylphid?"

"Her name."

"Ohhhhh." Adam turned back to the apparently female dragon still resting its head in his lap and recommenced the head-scratching. "So your name's Sylphid, huh? Nice ta meet'cha."

Adam could've sworn it smiled at him, "Kyuui! Kyuui, kyuui kyuui!"

A few more minutes passed in silence after that, save for the quiet purrs of the dragon as Adam scratched her scales. It was moments like this, sitting under an oak tree in the courtyard of a magic school in another world and petting a dragon, that the surreality of the situation returned in full-force to impress itself upon him. Before all of this, he'd been a simple college student. He'd had his own share of problems, his own share of joys, his own share of responsibilities, and his own share of dreams. He put in just enough effort to earn what was expected and acquire what he desired. He'd already gotten it through his thick skull that the world didn't owe him anything, and he certainly didn't expect the rest of his life to be a cakewalk, but he'd experienced a not-inconsiderable amount of hard times in the twenty-one years he'd been alive and figured that he'd eventually find his place in life amongst his friends and loved ones if he took care to avoid certain pitfalls that he'd learned to identify. And then all of that had been snatched away by… no, he supposed it wasn't fair to think of it like that. Louise hadn't exactly gone into her summoning ritual with the intention of summoning _him_ specifically. She'd just wanted to summon _something_ , something to validate her existence, to prove that she wasn't worthless in the eyes of her society, and she'd ended up with him. But even _that_ hadn't been a total loss, as Adam had not only proven himself to be a familiar of surpassing quality (as Guiche could attest), but also the friend that Louise so desperately needed. She was smiling far more often now, and not just around him but around his other friends too. Yes, if there was one thing Adam was grateful for in this whole Halkeginia situation, it was that he'd been able to meet the people he had. Louise, a girl with a kind heart trapped underneath a mountain of bluster and confidence issues. Siesta, a vivacious young maid with no shortage of curiosity and always willing to lend an ear. Colbert, relentless in his search for knowledge, but still an exceedingly decent person if you could break through the outer 'hardcore academic' layer. Marteau, with his fantastic cooking and people skills, despite his obvious distaste for the noble class. Hell, even the Headmaster was a pretty good guy, even if he _was_ a huge perv ( _that_ had been an interesting revelation). If Adam needed any kind of justification for his time here in Halkeginia, they were it.

Of course, that wasn't to say that being summoned to another world and made into the equivalent of a magical pet to a teen-age girl with self-confidence issues wasn't still the most ridiculous thing to ever happen to him.

Adam turned to regard the bluenette sitting next to him. She was one of the few enigmas he'd come across in his time at the Academy. This was actually the first time Adam had ever seen her _not_ in the company of Kirche. What was the story behind _that_ friendship? Someone as quiet and reserved as Tabitha appeared to be didn't seem like the kind of person that would hang around a girl as… _popular_ as the buxom redhead. Was it even a friendship? Maybe they were related somehow, and just stuck together because they were family? That didn't seem too likely, but hey, anything was possible.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company on this fine Spring morning?"

"Noontime."

"Wait, seriously? Damn. Guess I was out for longer than I thought."

"…"

"That didn't really answer my question though."

"Favorite tree." the young girl responded, never once looking away from her book.

"Ah. Gotcha."

"…"

"I suppose it _is_ a pretty nice tree."

.

.

.

"So… what are you reading?"

As the diminutive girl turned to regard the boy who continued to interrupt her, Adam silently cheered at his success in eliciting a tangible response from her.

"Stories."

"What, like fictional stories?"

"Yes."

Adam offered the girl a grin, "That's cool. I've always been something of an avid reader myself. My favorites were always fantasy and adventure stories, but I also enjoyed other stuff like horror and sci-fi."

The girl's eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch, "Sci-fi?"

"Science fiction. It's… hard to explain. I'm also like, ninety-nine percent sure you don't have any kind of analogue for it here in Halkeginia."

"I see…"

"So what kind of story is that?"

Her remaining eyebrow rose to join its counterpart. "You're… interested?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have asked."

The diminutive girl regarded the older boy intently for a few moments, as if to gauge the sincerity of his words, before slowly answering him.

"…It's about a wandering band of thieves… they go on adventures… and end up saving people more often than they steal from them."

Adam made a _'hmm'_ noise and regarded the young bluenette, "That… actually sounds pretty decent. Premise-wise, at least. Is the writing any good?"

"…It's a little pedantic, but fine overall."

"Well that's good. Is it a series or a standalone novel?"

"It's a standalone, but I'm fond of this author's other works."

"Gotcha." For the next fifteen minutes or so, Adam watched the girl with amusement as she went on to explain some of the author's other stories before moving on to other authors entirely, unaware of the fact that she'd spoken more words in the first sixty seconds of their discussion than he'd heard from her in total since he first came to Halkeginia.

 _'I guess she's the type that stays quiet until you bring up a topic that interests her.'_

"So if his style bothers you that much, then why do you read his stuff?"

"It isn't so much his writing _style_ as it is his strange distribution of detail. Certain characters and events get an absurd amount of focus, while others get hardly any fleshing-out at all."

Adam nodded, "I see. There's an author back in my world that does something similar. He spends an _ungodly_ amount of time doing nothing but developing the characters and setting, and only gets around to the actual plot at about 150-200 pages in. Still one of my favorite authors though."

"Really? What kind of stories does he write?"

Adam leaned back against the tree and smiled.

"Well…"

-)(-

If Louise had to pick the one thing that she liked most about having Adam as her familiar, it would be the fact that he was unwaveringly supportive of her, regardless of the fact that she was still a total failure at magic. If she had to pick the _two_ things that she liked most about having Adam as her familiar, it would be the fact that he was unwaveringly supportive of her, regardless of the fact that she was still a total failure at magic, and the fact that he came with the most _wonderful_ little device that played music _anywhere_ , and at _any time_. She'd been using it almost non-stop since she'd succeeded in acquiring it from him five days ago, and she'd swiftly come to the realization that her world still had a lot of catching up to do. Aside from the delightful musical device (or 'eye-fone' as he'd called it), Louise had also gotten a close enough look at Adam's clothes to determine that, despite the plain design, the thread-count was _much_ higher than all but the most luxurious noblewear, with a stitching uniformity that far surpassed the work of any ordinary seamstress. She'd questioned him about it, only to be completely blown away when Adam told her that such clothing was not only common, but _standard_ where he came from.

Walking out into the Academy courtyard, Louise was unable to suppress the small grin on her face as the steady thrum of music filled her own little world. She'd grown up listening to the music of her homeland, of Tristain and Halkeginia, and it wasn't until now that she realized just how _boring_ her world's music was. As it were, most commoners were more focused on working to support their family and just didn't have the time to commit to the art of music, while nobles were more likely to work on improving their magic instead. As a result, Halkeginia had never really experienced what it was like to have famous and prodigal composers. They had no Beethoven or Mozart or Tchaikovsky to call their own, so after a while Tristainian music all started to sound the same. Because of that, it had never been a significant part of Louise's life. Until now, that is. Even if she had absolutely no idea what she was listening to, or what instruments were being used, or what the lyrics were saying, the sheer _variety_ of music that Adam's strange and wonderful device had to offer was _staggering_ to the young Vallière girl, and so she continued to ignore the strange looks she got whenever she wore Adam's 'head-fones' in favor of enjoying the perks of otherworldly technology.

 _'Where in Brimir's name is that boy anyway?'_

Louise had just departed from the library, having elected to get some studying done during her free period, and decided to wander in search of her wayward familiar so that they could go grab some lunch. She'd already searched the main complex, but everywhere she looked would turn up bereft of the young green-eyed man. Taking her search to the grounds, Louise continued to wander until, finally, her efforts bore fruit. Standing against the wall up ahead and peeking around the corner was that Katie girl, anxiously biting her thumbnail and watching something (presumably her familiar). Louise paused the song she was listening to, slipped the headphones down around her neck, and approached the girl as silently as she could.

"HEY!"

Louise took a small amount of pleasure in the way that her brunette underclassman jumped nearly a foot in the air in fright before looking back to face the one who'd discovered her. Maybe that 'trolling' thing that Adam did on occasion was starting to rub off on her?

"A-ah! M-M-Miss V-Vallière! I-I was just… umm…"

Louise crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the stuttering girl before her.

"Just spying on my familiar?"

"A-ah, that's… I was only trying to…"

Louise sighed in exasperation. "Why don't you just go _talk_ to him? He doesn't bite."

The nervous brunette went back to aggressively nibbling her thumbnail before replying, "I can't! He's already talking with someone!"

Louise looked at the younger girl quizzically before glancing around the corner herself.

"Really? Who's he... talking... to..."

Louise trailed off and her jaw promptly hung open in shock at the sight of her friend and partner talking not with that maid-girl Siesta or one of the Academy professors as she expected, but with _Tabitha_.

Adam was _speaking with Tabitha_.

Not _to_ Tabitha or _at_ Tabitha, but _with_ Tabitha.

Louise could only watch in speechless astonishment as the two sat beneath a large oak tree and exchanged not just words and phrases, but a full-blown conversation with each other, seemingly oblivious to the fact that their simple chat was blowing the mind of everyone who'd ever been on the receiving end of the young bluenette's stoic silence.

Louise sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

 _'Eventually… eventually he'll_ HAVE _to run out of ways to surprise me…'_

Leaving her nervous underclassman behind, Louise made her way towards the oak tree, gradually picking up more and more of the conversation as she drew closer.

"…that makes no sense. Why wouldn't they just take the eagles all the way to Mount Doom?"

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh of exasperation, "I know! It's the most infuriating plot-hole in the whole damn series, and they never bother to explain why they don't do just that!"

"What are you two talking about?"

Adam turned to face the newly arrived Louise with a boyish grin. "Hey, Louise. How'd your studying go?"

"It went fine. I was just coming to tell you that it's lunchtime."

Adam cupped his chin in contemplation for a few moments before shrugging.

"Yeah, I guess I could go for some food." Adam said, removing the dozing dragon's head from his lap before standing up and brushing off the front of his pants. He turned to face the young girl sitting beside him, "Care to join us?"

Tabitha stood as well and answered the young man with a quiet "no" and a small shake of her head. The diminutive bluenette began walking away, but halted after taking only a few steps and turned to face Adam once more.

"…Thank you."

At that, Tabitha glanced over to address her own familiar.

"Come, Sylphid."

The dragon in question stood up and yawned. Sighting its master already walking away, it nuzzled into Adam's chest one last time before following.

Louise turned to regard her emerald-eyed friend with a questioning gaze, "Seriously though, _what_ were you two talking about? I can count the number of times I've heard Tabitha speak on one hand, and she's _never_ said more than one or two words at a time!"

Adam responded with a small shrug, "Not much, actually. We just talked about books for a little while."

Louise just stared at the older boy.

"Books."

"Yup."

" _Just_ books?"

"Just books."

"Ancient books filled with powerful arcane knowledge?"

"Nah. Just novels that we've read at one point or another."

Louise slowly began to shake her head in disbelief at her summoned companion. "So you're telling me that you spoke _at length_ with _Tabitha_ , a girl renowned Academy-wide for giving the word 'brevity' new meaning, about something as mundane as _books!?_ "

"Pretty much, yeah."

Louise pressed her thumbs to her temples and slowly massaged in circular motions. _'No, it's not worth it...'_ she tried to convince herself. Trying to understand why her friend did the things he did wasn't worth the headache such an effort would inevitably give her. Better to just go with it and hope the world eventually started to make sense again.

"Ughhh, just… let's just go eat, okay?"

-)(-

"Siesta, report!"

"Mister Guiche has done very well these past few days. With the exception of a few broken plates, his work so far has been of sufficient quality for an Academy employee, and he stopped complaining altogether two days ago." Siesta dutifully replied over the din of the Academy's busy kitchens, smiling as she set down four bowls of stew in front of Adam, Louise, and Guiche before sitting down to join the three of them herself.

Adam had to admit to being downright impressed with the amount of personal growth that Guiche had already shown in the time that he'd been attending to his new duties. When Guiche had shown up at Louise's room after dinner that first night, Adam had quickly and professionally laid out the new ground rules that the young earth mage was to abide by- That he was no longer permitted to use any magic whatsoever outside of the instances whereupon he is instructed to do so by either a teacher or Adam himself (the exception being if someone's life or well-being was in immediate danger), that he was to spend all of his time _not_ spent sleeping or in class shadowing Siesta and serving as her assistant in whatever capacity she required, and that he was no longer allowed to take meals in the dining hall proper with the rest of the Academy students.

He was also no longer allowed to refer to Louise as 'Zero', but that was more for Louise's benefit than Guiche's.

If he was being honest with himself, Adam had fully expected Guiche to refuse outright, to fall back on the already-tired excuse of such things being 'beneath a noble' and force Adam to once again play the 'honor' card. But no; instead he'd been pleasantly surprised when the boy merely nodded in silence before departing with Siesta to get started on his new job.

Adam turned to face the young Gramont boy with a grin, "Oh? It sounds like someone's been a good boy recently."

Having already tucked in to his own meal, Guiche merely sent a halfhearted glare in the older boy's direction before swallowing.

"I still don't see why I need to wear this outfit," the blond boy grumbled, glancing down and pulling at the collar of his altered butler's attire. "It's unbecoming of a noble such as I to wear the vestments of a common servant."

Adam just grinned wider, "Perhaps. But an Academy employee needs to look the part, right? As Siesta's assistant, you should wear the proper uniform, should you not?"

Guiche gave a 'hmph' at that and went back to glaring at Adam over his bowl of stew, causing Siesta to let out a small giggle at the spectacle. It was an increasingly common sight- the four of them more often than not dining together after Louise had elected to start taking lunch with Adam and Siesta (along with Siesta's new 'assistant') in the kitchens. They'd meet up for meals at least once a day, and as a result had quickly become something resembling a normal group of school-friends… and Guiche.

The raven-haired maid stifled her amusement and turned to address her emerald-eyed friend.

"I hardly feel like an employee myself anymore! Mister Guiche has cut down on so much of my work, and I finish my daily duties much faster now. Some of the other maids actually asked me to put in a good word for them so that you'd get _them_ assistants too!"

Adam smiled and shook his head, "No-can-do I'm afraid. Even if I wanted to, I'm pretty sure none of my challengers would be dumb enough to take me up on the same bet I made with Guiche now that they know what I can do."

"Oh! I forgot to ask, how did your duels go this morning?"

"They went fine. One knockout, two conceded matches, and the last guy hit himself with his own fireball."

"Poor guy." Siesta intoned with sympathy for the young combatant clear in her eyes.

"Why do you accept all those challenges anyway?" Louise asked, speaking up for the first time since they'd all sat down.

Adam turned to face his strawberry-blonde companion and answered her question with a nonchalant shrug.

"Practice, mostly."

Louise raised an eyebrow at that, "Practice? Practice for what?"

"For fighting mages. I'm supposed to act as your guardian, right? If I want to be able to keep you safe, then I need to be able to effectively counter anything and everything that might want to hurt you."

Louise looked up at her companion in surprise, "You're doing it for _my_ sake?"

"Sure am!" Adam replied with a grin as he reached over and ruffled the younger girl's hair. Louise just batted his hand away, but turned to continue her meal with a pleased expression and a small blush on her face. "That, and I want to test out how effectively I can fight with the different kinds of weapons I find in the Academy."

"Actually, now that you mention it," Siesta began with a slightly embarrassed look, "do you think that you could maybe… _not_ steal school equipment for your duels anymore? Some of the other staff members have been complaining about having to put the armor displays back together every evening…"

Adam cupped his chin and considered the request. Honestly, he was actually kind of surprised that it had taken this long for someone to mention it to him. He'd been nicking pretty much any weapon he hadn't already tested out since he'd begun accepting duel requests, and as it was he would've already collected a small armory's worth of armaments if he hadn't made it a point to return any unbroken weapons back to the place he'd found them.

"Sure, but in that case I'll need a weapon of my own."

Louise perked up in her seat and turned to face her friend once more, "Tomorrow's the Day of Void, so we could go into town and pick one up if you want."

Adam took a moment to consider it before nodding his head. "Sure, spending the weekend shopping in town sounds like it could be fun," he replied before turning to the third and fourth members of their little group.

"Yo Guiche, Siesta, you two wanna come with?"

The blond mage nearly spit out a mouthful of stew in surprise, instead only choking on it for a few moments before finally forcing it down his throat and turning to face Adam with a look of bewilderment.

"Me? Why would _I_ go with you?"

"Consider it a reward for good behavior. You're okay with it, right Louise?"

"I… suppose he can come." the young blonde reluctantly answered after a few moments of thought.

Guiche responded with a scowl aimed at the two seated across from him, "Allow me to rephrase my question then. Why would I _want_ to go with you?"

"Oi, I'm offering you a day off. A little gratitude would be nice." Adam returned with a scowl of his own.

Guiche was silent for about twenty seconds before finally replying "Will I have to wear this outfit?"

"Nah. You can wear the uniform you go to class in."

"...Fine."

"Awesome." The scowl on Adam's face promptly left as quickly as it came, only to be replaced by another grin as he turned to face Siesta, "What about you?"

The maid offered an apologetic smile, "Sorry, but I'm on-call in the Academy infirmary tomorrow. Thank you for the offer though."

"Don't worry about it, and you're welcome." Adam returned with a nod of understanding before addressing the two others seated at the table.

"The capital's about two hours or so away by carriage, right? Then how about we leave after breakfast tomorrow morning? That should give us plenty of time to check out the city."

After receiving a nod from Louise and a vaguely affirmative grunt from Guiche, Adam dug into his stew with an anticipatory smile, already excited for whatever tomorrow would bring.

-)(-

The torch sconces that lined the shadowed hallways of the Tristain Academy of Magic flickered in the brisk evening air, lending the whole place an 'old-timey dungeon feel' as Adam wearily trudged back to Louise's room from Professor Colbert's lab. He'd spent the past few hours discussing the nuances of international politics during the Cold War back on Earth, a subject that almost filled one of the instructor's notebooks in its entirety. In particular, Colbert had been utterly fascinated by the way that the economic theories and observations of men such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx could so strongly influence the trajectory of entire nations on the international playing-field, as well as the cultural friction caused by the capitalist America and communist USSR's perceived inability to coexist as superpowers in the modern world.

Adam's mouth stretched wide as he let out a yawn and blindly turned a corner, ascending a staircase towards the student dorms.

 _'God DAMN does that hay pile seem really enticing right about now…'_

Continuing on his way, Adam finally arrived at the hallway connected to Louise's room, but stopped short upon finding his path blocked by none other than Kirche's familiar. The two summoned companions then proceeded to stare at each other, each waiting for the other to commit to the first move and end their impromptu standoff.

Adam sighed, and decided that if he didn't get this over with then he'd most likely be standing there the whole night.

"Alright Zippo, what do you want?"

"Kreee?" the salamander cried, expelling a small cloud of smoke from its mouth in the process, before sauntering over and gently nipping at the hem of his hoodie.

"You want me to follow you, right?"

The salamander nodded, causing Adam to sigh again.

"Alright, lead the way."

The fiery lizard led him further down the hall and stopped in front of a familiar entryway, only a few doors down from Louise's, and looked up at his charge expectantly.

Sighing for the third time in half as many minutes, Adam knocked three times on the door.

"I'm coming in now. Hope you're decent."

Opening the door slowly, Adam peered into the darkened room that lay beyond the gap and stopped.

"Anyone ho- uagh!" Adam gave a startled cry as the familiar behind him forcibly nudged him forward and into the inky blackness before scuttling in after him and closing the door with its tail.

"Dick-move, Zippo. Dick-move." Adam threw a frosty glare at where he imagined the offending creature to be.

"Now now, there's no reason to be angry…" a sultry voice met Adam's ears before a * _snap_ * reverberated throughout the room, causing a multitude of candles to flare to life.

His vision quickly adjusting to the low-level lighting, Adam glanced back and forth around the room, eyeing the various decorations and accents that peppered the floor and desk-space, before finally settling his gaze on Kirche herself, who was lying promiscuously on her bed and dressed in nothing but a pair of panties and the sheerest, most revealing camisole he'd ever seen.

"Hello Darling" the tanned redhead seductively purred, running a finger along her bare thigh in a show of such brazen sexual overtones that there was really only one way Adam could respond.

"Fuck me…" he muttered to himself, his palm meeting his face with a resounding _*smack*_.

"That _is_ the plan" Kirche returned with a beatific smile.

"No, I mean… what the hell are you doing Kirche?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I've brought you here so that we can spend an evening together as young lovers should- indulging the _passion_ that smolders between us till the first cold rays of dawn tragically pull us from each other's embrace!" Kirche finished dramatically, rising to a seated position and leaning forward to give Adam an admittedly fantastic view of her thinly veiled breasts, "Don't be afraid; I'm sure you're rather experienced in these matters yourself, but even if you weren't there is no reason to fear this love of ours."

"Nuh-uh. Not buying it."

"But Darling," Kirche pressed her hand to her heart (doing… _interesting_ things to her chest in the process) and somehow managed to _pout_ seductively, "do you not feel it too? This fire that courses through my body whenever you are near, this _passion_ that consumes our souls till naught but the burning desire to entwine our arms around each other remains? Truly, this is love!"

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'lust', actually."

At that, Kirche gently rose from her position on the bed and slowly sashayed her way over towards her emerald-eyed guest before tenderly wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Call it what you wish. I realize that our first meeting was… somewhat less than cordial, but ever since that day you spoke out against Guiche you've haunted my dreams. Ever since you stood up for those girls and their feelings, ever since you displayed the kind of _power_ you're capable of, I've wanted nothing more than to be with you; to feel your arms around me, your body against mine. I've seen your fights, and they only serve to intensify what I feel, what I _need_."

"I need _you_." And with those words, Kirche raised her lips to meet Adam's.

It was a surprisingly chaste kiss given the general atmosphere of the situation, but Kirche reveled in the feeling of the older boy's lips nonetheless, only parting with him after having had her momentary fill.

With a smile, Kirche looked upward to meet Adam's eyes, only for her smile to dissolve into a puzzled frown upon her discovery that his gaze was not on _her_ , but on the window off to the side of her room. Turning her head to regard the fenestration that so distracted her current partner, she immediately realized why.

"Berisson! What are you doing outside of my window!?"

 _'Isn't this the third floor?'_ Adam idly wondered as the boy angrily sputtered out something about Kirche being late for a meeting with him.

 _'Oh yeah. Magic.'_ he remembered as Kirche swiftly removed her wand from between her breasts and chanted a short spell that gathered flame from the lit candles and whipped it at the boy who fell screaming from the air. Another quick incantation and the window locked up tight.

Turning back to the older boy she'd practically draped herself over, Kirche at least had the decency to blush as she valiantly tried to recapture the mood.

"S-so, where were we?"

At that moment, the two of them heard the door creak open, and turned to watch as a young man peered into the room, a melancholic expression plastered over his sharp features.

"Kirche! What are you doing with _him!?_ I thought we were going to 'heat the night up' together!"

"Later, Styx!" Kirche responded, and cast the same flame-whip spell at the boy, causing him to go flying back out of the room. But before she could so much as wave her wand again, three more faces took the downed boy's place, all of them sporting various degrees of anger.

"Kirche, what is this!?"

"You said you had no lovers!"

"Wait a moment, isn't that the Zero's Warrior? Oh wow, can I have an autograph!?"

By this point, Kirche's face was almost as red as her hair, and she nearly shouted at the three amorous intruders before forcing them out.

" _Manican, Gimli, get lost!_ And Ajax, you weren't even supposed to show up until _tomorrow!_ "

One spell later, and the door promptly slammed in the face of all three boys. Kirche breathed heavily, hoping against hope that Adam hadn't noticed the interruptions, a hope that was dashed as soon as she saw the amused grin on his face.

"Scheduling troubles?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it. I don't even know them. What I _do_ know is that our love still burns fiercely within... me..."

Kirche trailed off as Adam closed his eyes and slowly began to shake his head.

"I think that's enough, Kirche."

Kirche lowered her head and leaned into the older boy, her arms still wound around his neck. "You must think me a lowly, despicable woman."

Adam shook his head again. "No Kirche, I don't think that about you."

The Germanian beauty looked up with hope, "Then-!

"I think you're a stupid teenager, with raging hormones and no idea what love _actually is_."

Kirche recoiled as if physically struck, and took a step back from the emerald eyes that suddenly pierced her very soul.

"A… stupid teenager? Do you truly mean that?" she whispered, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

Adam raised his palms toward the girl, "Nothing personal. ALL teenagers are stupid. Trust me, I used to _be_ one."

"But then… why? Why do you reject me? Am I not pleasing enough for you?" the redhead questioned, a solitary tear making its way down her exotically tanned face.

Adam sighed ( _'I've been doing that a lot recently…'_ ) and softened his expression.

"Kirche, I'm not gonna lie- you are _drop-dead gorgeous_."

Kirche's face resumed its earlier attempts to match the exact shade of her flowing crimson hair.

"…But I have no interest in being your boy-toy," Adam continued, "and I have far too many other, more pressing concerns at the moment. Therefore, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say 'no'."

Adam offered the girl a genuine smile "Although I'll admit to being flattered at the amount of effort you put into this. The candles especially were a nice touch. Very tasteful."

With that, Adam walked back towards the door, stopping only to turn around once he'd gripped the handle.

"Goodnight Kirche."

Stepping outside, the door closed behind Adam with a soft _*click*_. Idly, he took notice of the fact that everyone that was in the corridor earlier had already departed.

 _'Well, almost everyone'_ he wryly corrected himself, sighting a pair of wide chestnut eyes watching him from around the far corner of the hallway.

"Everything alright Katie?"

The young first-year's response was to emit a high pitched squeak and run off.

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

 _'Damn high-schoolers, makin' my life all complicated n' shit.'_

Well, whatever. There was a hay pile in Louise's room with his name on it, and he would keep it waiting no longer.

-)(-

Kirche sat on her bed and absently stroked the scaly head of her familiar, replaying her encounter with the Vallière's _enticing_ companion over and over in her head, his words echoing in her mind just as his touch echoed throughout her skin.

 _"No Kirche, I don't think that about you"_

 _"I'll admit to being flattered at the amount of effort you put into this"_

 _"I have no interest in being your boy-toy"_

 _"I'm not gonna lie- you are drop-dead gorgeous"_

 _"You have no idea what love actually is"_

 _"Goodnight Kirche"_

 _"Kirche"_

 _"Kirche"_

 _"Kirche"_

Kirche raised her fingers to her lips, the ghost of the kiss she placed upon him still tingling pleasantly, and smiled.

"Oh, what a cruel man you are... to give me _just enough_ to leave me wanting _more_."

Her smile broke out into a coquettish grin, and a fire burst to life in her eyes.

"But if you think _that_ is enough to dissuade me, then you do not know Kirche the Ardent. You say I do not know what love is. I suppose that means we'll just have to discover what _true_ passion is, what _true love_ is… _together. My Darling, Adam._ "

-)(-

 **AN: And there you have it!**

 **Hey everyone! I'm really sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I had to help a couple different friends move, then I had to move** _ **myself**_ **across the country to get back to school, then there was the whole 'starting the new academic year' thing. But now all that stuff is taken care of, and I am pleased to present to you the newest chapter of this little pet project of mine!**

 **This is actually only about half of the original chapter I had planned, but I figured that it worked well enough on its own as a self-contained character development chapter. So instead of laying another 20k+ word wall-of-text in your laps, you get two slightly more manageable 10k+ word walls-of-text. But just because you guys are awesome, I'll give you a little sneak-peek of next chapter-**

 _"Say, that's a pretty nice grip you got there, kid. Tell me- are you a 'user'?"_

 _"What, like Tron?"_

 _"No not like Tron, you idiot!"_

 **Anyway, I just want to thank all of you who have favorited, followed, reviewed, or done any combination of the three. It's seriously an incredible feeling knowing that there are people out there who believe that what I've written is worth reading. You guys rock.**

 **So yeah, you all know the plan. I'll spend the next two or three days going over this chapter and polishing it up as best I can. Adam's backstory is next chapter (for sure this time). If you have any criticism (constructive or otherwise), then you know where to leave it!**

 **And as always, thank you for reading.**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither _Zero no Tsukaima_ (aka _Familiar of Zero_ ) nor any of its associated characters and settings.**


	6. Party Formation

**Chapter 5: Party Formation**

It was a beautiful day. From atop a cloudless azure sky, the springtime sun radiated its gentle warmth down upon the citizens of Halkeginia as they hurried along; the men, women, and children of Tristain going about their daily business as the constant hustle and bustle of their fair capital of Tristania created a rather pleasant and ever-present thrum, not unlike a heartbeat, as if the city itself was proudly proclaiming that it was alive and well to all who would hear its unarticulated words. Birds sang in harmonious choir to the tune of Life, and a light breeze playfully tickled at the napes of passersby as they wandered to and fro, betwixt and between their fellow countrymen as they made for whatever odd or end they sought amongst the market traders that morning.

Yes, it was truly a beautiful day.

And Guiche de Gramont was absolutely miserable.

 _'Why am I here? Why must I accompany the Vallière failure and her miscreant of a familiar? Do they derive some sort of perverse_ joy _from ignoring the social order?'_

Ever since they had departed from the Academy after that morning's breakfast, Guiche had sullenly borne witness to the myriad interactions of that Adam boy and Louise as he drove the carriage to their capital city. He was glad for the day off from his frankly insulting new 'job' as that (admittedly attractive) Siesta girl's 'assistant', but the older boy's penchant for witty remarks, quite often at the expense of the nobility, was wearing on the young Gramont, and whereas he would've expected Vallière to at the very least assert control over her own familiar, she once more failed the expectations of others by simply smiling and laughing at his irreverent jokes. Laughing!

What in the name of Brimir was _wrong_ with her!? She was a noble herself! Sure, many of the students joked that the 'Zero' couldn't use magic, but anyone who actually _believed_ that had clearly never witnessed the woefully underdeveloped girl make an attempt. After all, no commoner in the world could make explosions just by pointing a wand at something. But in any case, by the time they finally made it to the city proper, Guiche would've sworn before the Queen herself that the two considered each-other to be _equals_ , as astoundingly heretical as that sounded.

At the moment, the young earth mage's travelling companions were deep into excited conversation, Louise pointing out various market stalls and the wares their owners would hawk as Adam remarked that the scenery was reminiscent of something called a 'Renaissance Fair', whatever _that_ was. Barrels of local wine, cheap knockoff jewelry and trinkets, clothing of both upper and lower class, fresh fruits and meats, books and scriptures for the more academically or spiritually minded, carved wooden figurines, _everything_ they strolled past was witnessed _relentlessly_ by the pair as the young girl explained all the various facets of life in their wonderful capital to her familiar.

"The street we're currently on is called Bourdonné Street. It's the city's widest avenue, and leads all the way up to the castle! You can see it right over there!" the young strawberry-blonde girl excitedly spoke, pointing off towards the far end of the promenade where a large structure of bleached-white stone stood like a silent sentinel over the city about two miles away.

"Oh, wow. Looks fancy." her partner responded with a grin, before following off to the side of the cobblestoned street as his companion fawned over an overpriced silver pendant set with a pink gemstone.

Guiche internally sighed at the sight of such shameful behavior from a mage and her sworn attendant, but remained silent so as not to incur the older boy's wrath. Guiche still had nightmares about that thrice-damned duel, of the _shame_ of being made to look like a fool in front of nearly half the student body by someone who by all rights should have been nothing more than an amusing side-show for his classmates. He remembered the _ease_ with which the older boy tore apart his beloved Valkyries. He remembered the crowd cheering not for their noble brethren, but for the _commoner_ that had overstepped his bounds. He remembered the sharp sting he'd felt as the older boy's blade nipped at his cheek and cost him the duel. But by far, the worst memories were of those _eyes_. Guiche had no words to describe the eyes that had chilled him to his very core that day as their owner laid into him not with steel, but with _words_ ; words that no commoner would ever even _think_ to voice to a noble if they valued their life.

Well, no _normal_ commoner. Clearly the Vallière had summoned some sort of freak.

But then… why? Why would those words not leave him be? Even now, the heretical ramblings of that 'Adam' buzzed around in the back of his head like a fly that refused to afford him any peace of mind. It was maddening!

 _"You dare speak of honor when you have thrown yours to the dogs?"_

 _"I look at you and see a sniveling, petulant child throwing a tantrum and lashing out at others because he isn't getting his way!"_

 _"A real man owns up to his mistakes! A real man atones for his transgressions!"_

Guiche shook his head in a futile attempt to rid himself of the ceaseless admonitions that lingered in his thoughts and colored his somber mood.

 _'What am I doing? This is not how a noble acts! All these pointless musings on the inane prattle of a commoner… perhaps I have fallen ill?'_

Gradually, the stalls started to dwindle in number as Louise slowly guided them into the seedier part of town, small piles of refuse clearly visible in the gutters as they ventured onwards.

"I know it's somewhere around here… I remember it being close to Peyman's Potion Emporium…" the Vallière girl muttered to herself, before finally sighting a shop sign carved in the image of a shield and crossed swords.

"Ah-ha! Found it!"

 _'Ah yes, I'd almost forgotten the whole purpose behind this little 'field trip' of ours…'_

Guiche sighed again and followed after the girl and her infuriating partner, hoping against hope that the rest of the day would prove to be at least _somewhat_ more bearable than the needless exhibition of Halkeginian culture he'd already had to sit through.

Honestly, it was as if that familiar was from another world or something.

 **-)|(-**

Dull sunlight lazily filtered in through the dirty windows of the back-alley weapons shop as Adam, Louise, and Guiche entered and were met with the sight of countless weapons in every shape, size, and style. Shortswords, longswords, broadswords, greatswords, rapiers, falchions, claymores, dirks and daggers, spears and halberds, axes, maces, and various other instruments of battle hung from the walls or sat on display, just waiting to be purchased. Suits of gleaming plate-armor stood sporadically about the place, as if to judge the worth of those who would seek to wear them as they passed by. Moving further towards the back of the poorly lit establishment, they spotted the owner as he gazed at his newest suckers-… _customers_ with shifty eyes and a slight smirk from behind his wooden counter. At least, until he recognized the pentagram brooches that Louise and Guiche sported as being indicative of high social status.

"A-ah, noble customers! Welcome to André's Armaments! I assure you that absolutely nothing illegal is going on here!" the man quickly stammered out, bowing at the waist towards the two student mages.

"That's an awfully specific denial," Adam felt inclined to point out.

"It's true! All of my wares are real, and reasonably priced!" the man professed, raising his head to take stock of the tall, strangely dressed commoner boy who'd entered with the noble pair.

Louise sighed before turning away from the weapons display she was looking at and addressing the shop owner in an authoritative voice. "Calm down, we're not the Romalian Inquisition or anything like that. We're here to buy."

"A noble buying a sword? Isn't that a bit odd?"

"Why would that be odd?"

"Well, you know that old saying about priests and soldiers and nobles and such."

Louise nodded her head at the man's words, "True, but I'm not the one we're shopping for. It's for my familiar." she clarified, gesturing at her emerald-eyed companion.

"Ah, for the young man then?"

"Yes," Louise replied, "now show me the best weapon you have."

Adam didn't like the glint that appeared in the shop owner's eyes upon hearing those words, and after the man gleefully disappeared into the back room of his establishment he leaned down to whisper in Louise's ear.

 _"Let me handle this, okay?"_

Louise regarded her friend with a raised eyebrow, but nodded all the same when he flashed her a reassuring grin. A few moments later, the shop owner returned with a smug smile and the most _resplendent_ sword Adam had ever seen held in his hands.

It was solid gold with silver filigree and elegant rune-markings running along the length of the blade, with a beautifully sculpted crossguard set with expertly cut rubies that sparkled with a captivating crimson luster. To top it all off, the weapon sported a large jeweled pommel that nearly _glowed_ in the dim lighting of the shop. Honestly, Adam couldn't help but feel that it would be _far_ more at home in a fine art museum than on the field of battle. Louise and Guiche's eyes instantly lit up at the sight of the blade, and the shop owner grinned at their predictable reactions, launching into his well-rehearsed sales pitch.

"Tell me, have you fine noble folks heard of the infamous 'Fouquet the Shattered Earth', the master thief that breaks into the homes of nobility and makes off with the priceless treasures therein? Well, the rapscallion has been making _quite_ the name for himself recently, and many of the nobles of our fair country have begun outfitting their guards to defend against the infamous burglar. And when they come seeking armaments, _this_ is more often than not what they leave with." Lightly running his fingers down the length of the blade, a soft ringing sound accompanying the action, he continued "This is one of the finest blades ever crafted by the Germanian master alchemist Lord Shupei. The runes inscribed on the blade allow it to cut through iron like butter!"

Louise hungrily eyed the sword in the man's hands, "Yes, it's clearly an exquisite blade befitting of a noble's status. How much?"

"Three thousand écu." the man answered, causing Louise's face to fall in disbelief.

"Three thousand!? You can purchase an entire estate in the countryside for that much!"

The shop owner just clicked his tongue in disappointment.

"A good sword is worth a _castle_ my Noble Lady, and I assure you that you shall not find a blade of this caliber for a lower price anywhere else."

Louise looked conflicted, her desire to appear impressive to other nobles warring with her natural frugality. She glanced at Adam, as if to call out for help.

Adam sighed at his young companion's naivety ( _'didn't I_ just _tell her to let me handle this?'_ ), but stepped forward anyway and motioned toward the sword.

"May I?"

"Of course!" the man replied, handing it over with a grin.

Adam grasped the blade in his right hand and took a few practice swings.

 _'Yeah, there's no way we're buying this overpriced piece of shit.'_

Adam looked down at his left hand, confirming with his eyes what he already felt with his body- his runes weren't reacting to the blade at all. Slowly, he turned to face the three expectant faces eagerly awaiting his verdict.

"It's a fantastic looking sword…"

"Of course" André grinned even wider and took the blade from Adam's outstretched hand, "I told you that it was-"

"But I would only carry it into battle if I were actively looking to get myself killed."

Shocked expressions met his words as the shop owner, struggling to keep up his grin, gripped the sword's handle even tighter.

"I-I beg your pardon?"

"Only two types of people make a sword out of gold- idiots, and those who plan on selling it to idiots. Gold is one of the softest metals known to man; that thing would snap within the first few minutes of its first fight." Adam explained as the blood drained from the shop owner's face at the increasingly likely prospect of losing such a big sale.

"B-but the enchantment makes it so that it can-"

"Cut through iron like butter, yeah I heard you the first time." Adam cut the man off. "But what if I have to cut through something that _isn't_ made of iron? Like, say, an earthen construct? I seem to recall you mentioning a certain earth magic-using thief. I'm afraid this sword would only serve as a liability in a fight like that."

Adam turned to face the more mundane weapons hanging from the wall, "Not to mention the fact that the balance is weird and the grip sucks. It may be a fantastic set-piece, but it's a _terrible_ weapon. So if it's all the same to you, I think I'm just gonna browse for a bit."

At that, Adam walked over and began inspecting the assorted blades, bludgeons, and polearms that decorated the shop, leaving his two gobsmacked travelling companions to deal with the now nervous shopowner.

He had just taken a sword of medium length, not unlike the one he'd used in his duel against Guiche, off the wall when he heard what he could only describe as 'metallic snickering'.

 _'The hell is that noise?'_

"You certainly showed _him_ , huh? I don't think I've ever seen André quite that flustered before."

"Yeah… thanks…" Adam put the sword he was holding back and cautiously approached the bargain bin that the voice seemed to be echoing from. "Now who exactly am I speaking to?"

"What, are those eyes of yours just for show? Down here!"

Adam's focus followed the voice and was met with the sight of an old rusted blade poking out of a long sheath from among the discount weaponry.

"Yeah, right here!" a strange metal clasp on the blade spoke, opening and closing like a human mouth and causing Adam to freeze in place.

 _'Holy shit the sword is talking to me what do I do'_

"Ah yes, of course. Please forgive me for not recognizing you sooner. It isn't every day that one comes across a talking sword, after all." Adam replied, his even tone belying the fact that he was currently having a conversation _with a_ _goddamn sword_.

 _'Fuckin' Magic, I swear to god…'_

"Eh, I'll forgive you this time. But only because you were able to recognize that gaudy piece of crap earlier for what it was."

Adam nodded and reached out his hand towards the talkative weapon, stopping just short of actually grabbing hold of it.

"Do you mind if I…?"

"Not at all. I _welcome_ it, in fact. It's been too damn long since I've been properly wielded."

Clasping his fingers firmly around the sword's handle, Adam lifted it up and slid the blade out of its scabbard, dislodging a fair few flakes of rust in the process.

 _'Approximately forty-five inch blade, no curvature, and single-edged with a modest crossguard. No fuller, but I guess that's to be expected. Two hand-lengths grip, no pommel. Rusted to hell and back, but no other visible flaws or damage to structural integrity. It's also_ alive _, apparently.'_

Adam didn't even need to look down at his runes. He could feel the magical empowerment surging through his body, an odd-yet-pleasant tingly-warmth emanating from the brand on the back of his left hand as the blade practically _hummed_ in his grip and its specifications revealed themselves to him. Adam shuddered with joy as a manic grin threatened to split his face in half.

 _'Oh, FUCK yes! I played Secret of Mana; I know_ exactly _what this is! No way in HELL am I leaving this shop without this sword!'_

The sapient weapon's steely baritone brought him out of his reverie, " _Whoa_ , that's... huh..."

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. Say, that's a pretty nice grip you got there, kid. Tell me, are you a 'user'?"

"What, like _Tron_?"

"No not like _Tron_ , you idiot!"

Adam laughed and re-sheathed most of the weapon, leaving it with just enough room for it to move its 'mouth'. "Calm down, I was just joking. And to answer your question- if you're talking about what I _think_ you're talking about, then yeah, I'm pretty sure I _am_ a 'user'."

It wasn't until then that the weapon's words registered in Adam's mind.

"Wait a minute, how the hell do you even know what _Tr_ -"

" _Derflinger!_ How many times do I have to tell you to stop harassing my customers!?"

Adam cut off and turned to face the shopkeeper, who was glaring at the sword in his hands with unconcealed disdain. The sapient blade just scoffed in response to the man's allegations.

"Harassing!? I'll have you know that we were having a rather pleasant conversation! Unlike you, this guy actually recognizes _quality_ when he sees it!"

"Is that… a talking sword?" Guiche spoke up, glancing at the now-named Derflinger with a quizzical look.

"Yes, it's a talking sword." André sighed, holding his head in his hands. "But it's got a rotten tongue, and he usually just drives away my customers."

"As if! You've _never_ needed _my_ help to drive away customers!"

The shopkeep looked up with a snarl, "Keep talking like that and I'll melt you down, you worthless piece of rusted scrap!"

"HA! I'd like to see you _try_ to melt down the mighty Derflinger!"

"That's it! You are _slag_ you irreverent little-!"

"GENTLEMEN! Calm yourselves! I believe I have a solution to all of our problems." Adam raised his voice, grabbing everyone's attention. "We will purchase this sword" the young man declared, before looking down to address the weapon in his hands.

"Unless you have any objections?"

"No objections here, Partner! Just throw the man some cash and we'll be on our way!" Derflinger happily replied.

"Adam… are you certain? Surely you'd rather have something in better shape?" Louise asked, warily eyeing the sapient weapon.

"Well, I do prefer double-edged blades, but the length and weight are both suitable for my needs and other than the rust he seems to be in fine condition. I'll take him." Adam responded, turning to face the shopkeeper, "For a… _reduced_ price, of course."

The shop owner gave a tired sigh and waved his hand dismissively. "You can have him for a hundred écu."

Louise was halfway through accepting the offer when Adam placed a hand over her mouth, interrupting her and answering the man himself.

"We'll give you twenty-five."

""What!?"" the shop owner and Derflinger both shouted before Adam forcibly shoved the sword back into its scabbard and offered the outraged shopkeep an amused grin.

"What's the matter? Didn't you _just_ get through telling us that you were planning to melt him down anyway? You should consider yourself lucky that we're willing to offer even _that_ much to take him off your hands."

"Fine, eighty-five écu!" the man angrily retorted.

"Eighty-five?" Adam gave the man an incredulous look, "Look, I realize that you're trying to make a living here, but there's a clear distinction between running a business and _highway robbery_. I'm afraid eighty-five is just too much. Thirty écu."

Of course, Adam had no _actual_ idea of whether or not eighty-five écu was a reasonable asking price for a sword. There was no telling what the exchange rate between the American dollar and the Halkeginian écu might've been, and it wasn't as if he was often in the market for a sword anyway. Still, Adam was going to push the price as far down as he possibly could. After all, no self-respecting college student would _ever_ spend a lot of money on something if they could get it for cheaper. Not to mention the fact that the shop owner had already tried to take advantage of them once already.

"Grrrrrrrrrr… seventy écu!"

Adam walked over to the counter and leaned forwards to whisper conspiratorially with the incensed shopkeep.

"Do you know who those kids are?" Adam asked in a low voice, covertly gesturing over to where Louise stood watching him with a wary eye and Guiche silently… glared at him? What was _that_ about?

Well, whatever.

"No." the shop owner answered in a decidedly hostile tone.

"Scions of House Vallière and House Gramont. Very important people, you see."

The shopkeeper's eyes flew wide at that, "Are you serious?"

Adam nodded in response. "Yup. Now, can you _imagine_ the kind of _business_ you'll be able to drum up with names like _those_ backing you? Plus, Derflinger won't be around anymore to annoy the customers. Catch my drift?"

Adam reached over and clapped his hand over the man's shoulders, pulling him into a one-armed embrace. "Look André, buddy, pal, I'm _trying_ to help you out here. The choice is ultimately yours, but this _is_ a prime opportunity for mutual benefit; I implore you, take the smart option."

A multitude of emotions played out across the shopkeeper's face- anger, suspicion, realization, eagerness, back to mild irritation, and finally settling on what could only be classified as 'exasperated resignation'.

"Fifty, and I'll not go an écu lower."

Adam grinned triumphantly. "If you throw in whatever I'll need to get this guy cleaned up and taken care of, we'll give you fifty-five."

"Sixty."

"Fifty-seven."

"…Deal."

 **-)|(-**

After sorting out the issue of cost, it took all of about two minutes to finalize the sale itself. Adam strapped Derflinger's scabbard to his back as Louise handed the shopkeep fifty-seven écu coins and arranged for the additional items to be delivered directly to the Academy, while Guiche impatiently waited near the door, clearly not wanting to remain in the dirty shop any longer than he had to. Soon enough, the trio (now quartet) were outside once more, steadily making their way towards the less unsavory parts of the city.

"I can't _believe_ you sold me out like that, Partner! I'm worth _way_ more than a paltry fifty écu!"

Louise giggled as Adam's palm met his face and he released a sigh of exasperation at the sapient blade's inability to accept the fact that his new wielder had the _gall_ to haggle for him. From the moment they'd exited the shop, Derflinger hadn't shut up about it.

"That may be true, but why the hell would I actually want to _pay_ that much when I could easily get you for far less? _Especially_ considering the fact that it was _Louise's_ money that paid for you, not mine." The young man responded, to which Derflinger gave an annoyed 'hmph'.

"I actually thought that was rather impressive," the young amber-eyed mage commented before turning to look up at her summoned companion, "where did you learn to do that anyway?"

"Used car salesmen," Adam just shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, that and the fact that if there's one thing college has taught me, it's to never pay full price for _anything_ if you can help it. Always pay as little as possible for as much as you possibly can."

"Hmm… that's a pretty good philosophy." Louise nodded in approval, "They say a fool and his money are quickly parted. I'm glad to see that your looks are not at all indicative of your economic sensibilities."

"Not bad, _kid_. You're learning well." Adam lightly nudged Louise with his elbow, "Also, hey!"

Louise met his light protestations with a smile, but soon turned to look up at the rusted blade, lingering reservations about her friend's choice of weapon clear on her face.

"Still, couldn't you have picked something a little more… dignified? Sure Derflinger may be interesting, possibly even _unique_ , but he looks as if he might rust away at any moment. He must be decades, maybe even a century old!"

The sapient blade leveled the best approximation of a glare it was capable of at the young girl, "You're no prize yourself, half-pint. And just so you know, I'm six thousand years old."

Any scathing comeback for the slight against her short stature died on Louise's lips as the sword revealed its true age to the group. "Derflinger, are you serious? Six _thousand_?" Adam queried, his own shock plain to see. He'd figured the talking sword was old, but not quite _that_ old. He'd been thinking in terms of _centuries_ , not _millennia_.

"You bet, Partner! Your ol' pal Derf's been the best damn blade this side of the Rub al' Khali for _quite_ some time now."

"Six thousand…" Louise echoed, before her eyes suddenly lit up, "Wait, that means you were around during Founder Brimir's time!"

"Yeah, I hung with the B-Man. What of it?"

"What was he like!? You have to tell me!"

"Can't. Don't really remember anything that happened back then too well. All I know is that I've at least met the guy."

Louise's jaw dropped in shocked disbelief, "What!? What do you mean you can't remember!? This is _Founder Brimir_ we're talking about! How can you not remember the greatest mage to ever live!?"

"Hey, I think we've already established that I've lived a _loooooooooooooong_ time. Can _you_ even remember what you had for breakfast a _month_ ago?"

Louise faltered, "Well… I…"

"Didn't think so. What about you, Partner?"

"Huh? Oh, I dunno. Probably pop-tarts or something?"

"And that's why _you're_ my partner, Partner!" Derflinger happily exclaimed, "And FYI shortstack, I happen to think my rust makes me look _distinguished_."

"It makes you look _cheap_." Louise returned with a frosty glare.

"Why I oughtta-!"

"Is the middle of the street _really_ the best place to be arguing?" Adam diplomatically intervened, "Derf, quit picking on Louise. And Louise, remember that not everything has immediately apparent worth. After all, even diamonds need to be properly cut and polished before they can really shine. Kind of like you and your magic." Adam finished with a grin, reaching over and tousling Louise's hair.

A light blush dusted Louise's cheeks as she looked away with a small smile. He was doing 'it' again, the 'trying to make her feel better about herself' thing. She still didn't understand why he went to such lengths to do so, but if she was being honest with herself she'd stopped caring entirely _days_ ago. She might still be a useless mage, but because of Adam she felt better than she had in years. He was her first real friend since Princess Henrietta back when they were still children, and Louise relished the feeling of not being quite so _alone_ anymore.

The duo quickly recommenced their stroll through Tristainia's back streets, but stopped before they had even reached the next intersection when they realized that Guiche had neglected to follow. Looking back, they were greeted with the sight of the blond boy shaking slightly, his face aimed at the ground and hands balled up into fists at his sides. Adam called out to the boy.

"Yo Guiche, you alright?"

"I …n't …and…"

"Guiche?"

"I SAID I DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

Adam and Louise shared a silent glance at each other before Louise turned back to the young earth mage and asked "What don't you understand?"

" _ **HIM!**_ " Guiche shouted, his arm snapping through the air to point squarely at Adam's chest, "I don't understand him at all! _Nothing_ he does makes any sense!"

Louise narrowed her eyes at the blond boy, "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"I _mean_ that he does not conduct himself in a way that follows _any_ conventional logic or rationale! It's as if he gives absolutely _no_ prior thought to his words and actions, but _somehow_ manages to work everything to his advantage anyway!" Guiche angrily elaborated. "The day he made that bet with me, I thought he was just a delusional commoner who believed himself to be above the nobility for some unfathomable reason. But after he defeated me in that duel, his first command was to have me _apologize_ to the people I had wronged, two of whom were nobles! Instead of rightfully celebrating his victory, or _any_ of his victories for that matter, he teaches his challengers how to fight more effectively! Instead of simple humiliation, he punishes me by making me into an Academy employee, under the purview of Miss Siesta no less! And even _then_ , he still offers me a _day off_ to walk around town! He _completely_ ignores the social mores of Halkeginia, he passed up the _best_ looking weapon in that shop in favor of the _worst_ ("Oi!"), and he likens your _complete_ inability to produce _anything_ other than those _horrid explosions_ to a _BRIMIR-DAMNED DIAMOND!_ " Guiche ranted, before turning to regard the older boy in question with a heated glare.

" _Who ARE you!?_ "

Louise stared at the blond boy openmouthed, her shock at his uncharacteristically intense outburst temporarily overriding her noble's sense of decorum. Where had THAT come from? For as long as Louise had known Guiche, her classmate had always been far too focused on chasing skirts to appear as anything more dignified than a young lecher in the making. Granted, she'd generally tried to keep her socialization to a minimum after the other students caught wind of her myriad failed attempts at even the most basic spellwork, but it was still incredibly out-of-character for the womanizing earth mage. She had never seen him so _serious_ before. Slowly, Louise turned to face her companion, his own visage mirroring her own. A small part of Louise wanted to tell Guiche off for yelling such disparaging things at her familiar, at her _friend_ , but that part was swiftly overruled by a much _larger_ part of her; a part that couldn't help but think that it was a _really good question_.

Just who _was_ Adam?

It was a question that Louise herself had been silently pondering almost _constantly_ since she had brought him forth from that blinding white light eleven days ago; a question that resounded all the more noticeably in her head, now that Guiche had given voice to it. She wanted to know the answer just as much as her classmate did, if not _more_. This strange boy from another world, who discounted the idea of nobility out of hand, and had asked not for power or pleasure, but for fairness instead. Who politely rebuffed Kirche's advances (he'd told her about his meeting with her the night before), and continually rose to her defense. Who'd freely offered her a shoulder when she'd needed one to cry on, and stood stalwart against any perceived injustice, regardless of its source. Who easily defeated mages in combat like it was nothing, even though he was just a (somewhat) normal commoner. This strange, _strange_ boy who was so _kind_ to a failure like her.

 _'Adam… who are you really?'_

Louise glanced up as Adam grimaced and scratched the back of his neck in clear discomfort, before turning to face the younger boy with a serious expression.

"Well _first_ of all, you're thinking about it all wrong. It was never intended to be a punishment. It was _always_ supposed to be a lesson."

"A LESSON!? What _exactly_ am I supposed to be learning by toiling away at a PLEBEIAN'S JOB every day!?" Guiche shouted, causing Louise to give silent thanks that they had yet to reach the more heavily populated regions of the city.

Adam just nonchalantly shrugged in response, "Lots of things. Humility, empathy, tolerance, respect for others, self-control, self-sufficiency, work ethic, ethics in general… you know, stuff like that. Basically, I'm trying to help you become a better person. To _you_ it may seem as if there is no underlying reasoning behind my actions, but there _are_ reasons. I stood up to you because you'd hurt my friend. I don't gloat about my duels because I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves. I compared Louise and her magic to a diamond-in-the-rough because I firmly believe that she has _far_ more potential for greatness than anyone has ever given her credit for."

Adam slowly made his way towards the younger boy whose expression currently _radiated_ shock and disbelief. "Like I said, this was never intended to be a punishment. If I'd wanted to humiliate you, I'd have just stuck you in a maid's uniform and paraded you around town. But that wouldn't have solved anything at all. So instead of something juvenile like that, I set you up as Siesta's assistant so that you could get a good look at what everyday life is like for commoners and gain an appreciation for what they go through on a daily basis. I forced you to walk a mile in their shoes, so-to-speak."

Adam placed a hand on the now dumbstruck Guiche's shoulder, "The world is far larger than you realize, and no matter where you go, you're going to run into people. A _lot_ of people, from all walks of life. And if you continue to discount them just because they're different from you, like you do with commoners, then you are willfully denying yourself the privilege of having known them. You are depriving yourself of priceless life experience, and all because you refused to broaden your horizons and see the world from different points of view. You see everything through the lens of 'commoners vs. nobles', and it's doing nothing but _holding you back_. And I think that's just _sad_. So, instead of punishing you for the indoctrination you never had the chance to refuse, I decided that I wanted to try to help you."

Guiche looked up at the emerald eyes that had once frightened him so, and found only honest determination in their deepest recesses. But one question still remained.

"…Why? Why in the world would you try to do something like _that_ … for _me?_ "

Adam merely offered the boy a grin, "My own life experiences have taught me many things. One of those things is that _no-one_ is beyond help, or 'not worth it'. _Everyone_ is worth it. Even you, Guiche de Gramont."

Louise could only watch in astonishment as Adam turned away from her speechless classmate and back towards the small portion of street where she stood rooted to the spot, completely blown away by his words. She'd never heard him speak like that before, and the sheer _conviction_ with which he denied the very _foundation_ of her society and upbringing caused Louise to gulp in momentary panic.

 _'Oh dear Founder… He can NEVER meet Mother! She'd flat-out_ kill _him for his way of thinking!'_

There was no doubt in Louise's mind about that. The 'Rule of Steel' her mother held in such high regard necessitated nothing less than _perfect_ adherence to Tristainian Law and the Brimiric Faith as a whole. Her mother would refuse to see her familiar's opinions as anything but the _height_ of heresy, and would summarily execute him on the spot in the name of her Queen, her Country, and her fellow nobles everywhere. Then she would execute _Louise_ for harboring such a person for so long, familiar or no familiar.

Yes, if Louise was to retain any semblance of happiness, then her familiar and her mother could _never_ be allowed to meet.

Louise was pulled from her thoughts when Adam offered her a smile and began walking back towards the city's center, "And as for who I am… well, I suppose it _is_ high-time Louise and I swapped life stories. Why don't we talk over lunch?"

 **-)|(-**

Tabitha was somewhat frustrated.

Earlier that morning, she'd been having the most _wonderful_ dream of her uncle Joseph being eaten alive by her familiar when Kirche burst into her room and woke her up on her day off, raving about her newest 'Darling' and asking to use Sylphid for the day. She'd barely had enough time to get dressed before the excitable Germanian literally dragged her through the Academy halls and out onto the grounds where Sylphid was napping in the morning sun. While it was true that Kirche may have been one of the very few people that Tabitha would consider a genuine friend, even _she_ had trouble dealing with the vivacious redhead when she got like this.

Riding Sylphid into town, she'd been forced to endure a full play-by-play of Kirche's rendezvous the previous night with none other than Louise's familiar, Adam. She had to admit to actually being rather impressed that he had been able to resist Kirche's advances; she'd seen firsthand what her exotic friend could do to a man with nothing but a flutter of her eyelashes and a smile, and from the way she told it, Kirche had pulled out all the stops in her fervent attempts to get the young man to 'stay the night'. But as impressive as his sense of self-discipline was, it was still directly responsible for the fact that she was spending her day off standing in a dirty weapons shop, disinterestedly watching Kirche try to seduce the shopowner into giving her an overpriced sword so that she could give it as a gift and impress her newest amorous fixation. For that reason alone, she could do nothing but curse the older boy for not simply giving in to his baser desires and bedding her best friend, as admittedly odd as that sounded.

Tabitha honestly wasn't sure how she felt about the older boy. 'Guarded interest' would be an acceptable way to put it, she supposed. Even now, she wasn't entirely sure how he'd managed to elicit a conversation from her. She was well aware of the reputation she'd developed among her classmates as a result of her curt way of speaking, but what none of them realized was that her terse mannerisms weren't due to some overinflated sense of self-importance brought on by her magical skill (as some of her peers believed), or because of crippling shyness, or some other personality quirk. No, the truth was that she simply saw no point in building relationships with people she knew she would never be able to relate to. From childhood, she'd been forced into numerous life-or-death situations, constantly fighting for survival against insurmountable odds, and all at the whims of the man who'd poisoned her mother and killed her father over the throne of Gallia. 'Missions' they called them. More like SUICIDE missions. It had been obvious from the start that every task she was given was specifically designed to get her killed. Whether it was assassinating a highly protected target in a well-fortified area, or hunting dragons in the frigid wastes of northern Halkeginia, she knew that every time she left they were hoping that she would never return.

But she _did_ return. Time and time again, against all odds, she would return triumphant. And Joseph _hated_ it. Or, at least she _thought_ he did. She honestly didn't know whether or not that man was even _capable_ of feeling even the most basic of emotions.

Tabitha was strong; none who had met the girl would contest that. But hers was not a natural-born strength. No, it was a strength born of hardship, tempered and ground to a razor's edge in the forge of strife. She was strong because she _had_ to be. To be weak was to be dead, and to be dead was to leave her mother abandoned, and her uncle Joseph with free reign. And she would _not_ allow that under _any_ circumstances. So she closed off her heart to all but a select few, and kept her interactions with others to the bare minimum. Her only real hobby was reading; a remnant of happier times, when her father would sit beside her at night and tell her stories until she eventually drifted off to sleep, blissfully unaware of the unfairness life had in store for her.

Compare all of that to the downright _sheltered_ lives that most of her classmates had led up till that point, and it became very easy to understand why the bluenette just couldn't connect with people very well.

It wasn't until Adam showed up that she discovered that _talking_ about books could be just as enjoyable as actually _reading_ them yourself. The commoners generally kept to themselves and none of the other nobles were interested in her brand of escapism; but that familiar of Louise's seemed to be turning just about _everything_ on its head as of late. His stalwart protection of his summoner from the jeers of the other students during classes, his spat with Guiche over the blond boy's treatment of a maid, his numerous duels with everyone that challenged him… that boy made waves just by being himself, and Tabitha had been surprised when she came to the realization that she'd actually _enjoyed_ the conversation she'd shared with her fellow bibliophile. Yes, if she had to sum up what she thought of Adam in one word, 'interesting' would be that word. He was _interesting_.

But he was not a _friend_. Not yet, at least.

Fortunately for Tabitha, the shop owner wasn't nearly as disciplined as Adam, and in less than five minutes Kirche was giddily skipping down the boulevard in search of her precious 'Darling' with a cloth-bound sword nestled in her arms, leaving the diminutive bluenette to give a quiet sigh at her friend's shenanigans and silently follow after as she idly reminisced on the stories that the subject of their search had told her about.

 _'The Lord of the Rings_ _... I wonder if it would be possible to get my hands on a copy…'_

 **-)|(-**

"Of all the places you could have picked to eat at, _why_ in Brimir's name did you have to pick _this_ one?"

"Because we spent almost an hour wandering through town looking for a place to eat when you refused all of the available choices. This place was close, and didn't seem _too_ expensive. Thus, I made an executive decision and here we are."

Adam couldn't help but grin as he watched Louise openly glare at the rather well-endowed waitresses that passed by the table they were seated at every so often. Noticing the older boy's mirth at her expense, Louise instantly shifted her glare towards the emerald-eyed boy, "And you expect me to believe that your decision had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the shamelessly dressed girls prancing around the place?"

Adam glanced over at one of the waitresses in question bending over to pour a glass of wine at another table, silently appreciating the skimpy backless maid outfit the owner had them working in, and grinned. "Well, they're certainly not a mark _against_ the establishment…" he responded, to Louise's clear disdain.

Hey, he may not be a slave to his hormones like the teenagers he'd been keeping company with recently, but that in _no way_ meant that he wasn't still in possession of a perfectly healthy libido. Or a functioning pair of eyes, for that matter.

It was called the Charming Faeries Inn. A quaint little bar-and-restaurant type deal with rentable rooms near the center of the capital city, the place had a surprisingly cozy feel to it and was clearly popular with the locals (the male ones at least). After Louise had led him and a now silent Guiche around town in search of food, Adam had finally lost patience with his young companion's absurd dining standards and simply strolled right into the next eating establishment they'd passed, forcing the other two to begrudgingly follow his lead. Upon sighting the attire of the employees, Louise had immediately turned bright red and attempted to walk right back out, only to be stopped by Adam's hand clamped around her wrist as he led (read: dragged) the two student mages over to one of the few unoccupied tables.

Turning to face his noticeably more cheerful companion, Adam watched as Guiche hungrily swept his eyes up and down every waitress that passed their table.

 _'Old habits die hard I guess.'_ The young man thought to himself before speaking up. "You can look all you want, Guiche. Just don't touch. I'd prefer _not_ to get thrown out for sexually assaulting the employees."

Guiche's face fell at the admonishment, but the blond boy muttered a disheartened 'I know that...' all the same.

"Welcome to the Charming Faeries Inn!" a cheery voice from Adam's left called out as a pretty brunette with curly, shoulder length hair placed three menus on the table in front of them. "My name is Jeanne, and I'll be your waitress today. Go ahead and decide what you'd like, and I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order!" the waitress continued before rushing off to deal with the other patrons. Adam heard an angry huff from off to his side.

"How dare she treat us so flippantly? Doesn't she realize that we're nobles?" Louise indignantly grumbled once the waitress was out of earshot, her face taking on an affronted crimson coloring.

"She's not being flippant, Louise. They're just swamped right now."

"Swamped?"

"It means 'really busy'. Which is understandable, considering we showed up in the middle of the lunch-hour rush."

"So? That doesn't excuse her lack of regard for our station." Louise returned with a pout.

"I'm just saying that you should cut her a little slack. It's not really fair to get angry at her when she's only trying to do her job."

"But…"

Adam regarded the strawberry-blonde girl with a stern look, one that brokered no argument.

"No 'buts'. Patience is a virtue, Louise; just let it be."

Louise looked as if she was about to reply, but dejectedly lowered her head instead, causing a twinge of guilt to spike through Adam's stomach, which he swiftly ignored.

 _'She'll have to learn how to deal with people eventually. Might as well get the lessons in when I can.'_ Adam thought, though he had to admit that it would be a hell of a lot easier if Louise didn't have that damn 'kicked-puppy look' working in her favor. As much as it hurt his pride to acknowledge, he had no way to effectively defend against it.

"Shameful, a familiar talking back to their master like that…" Guiche muttered.

Adam turned to face him and raised an eyebrow, "Shameful? Really? Coming from the guy that hasn't stopped undressing people with his eyes since he sat down?"

Guiche tried to glare in response to the older boy's words, but quickly gave up in favor of burying his embarrassed face behind his menu, prompting the other two to emulate his actions lest the waitress return before they'd come to a decision.

 _'Oh shit. I can't believe I forgot that I can't read here.'_

Or, at least _try_ to emulate.

After first arriving in Tristain, it hadn't taken Adam very long to realize that while Colbert's translation spell may have allowed him to communicate with the locals _verbally_ , the _written_ language of Halkeginia might as well have been ancient hieroglyphics for all the reading comprehension he was suddenly incapable of. As such, he'd basically been relying on Louise to read everything for him, a task that she was oddly happy to undertake. He suspected it had something to do with the feeling of actually being needed for something, a feeling that she was most likely _very_ unfamiliar with, considering her history of magical failures.

In any case, Adam was quick to lean over and ask Louise for a rough outline of his meal options, and quickly decided on a delicious-sounding lemon-zested baked salmon with a side of wild rice and spring greens.

After a few more minutes of waiting around, the waitress finally returned to take their orders. Funnily enough, it was only then that she seemed to realize that two of the patrons sitting at the table were nobles, at which point she began apologizing profusely for her apparent lack of manners. Adam valiantly tried to assuage her of her fears of punishment, but it wasn't until Louise gave a huff and told her to just go put in the orders that she sprinted off in relief.

For a little while afterwards, Adam simply sat and watched the people that surrounded him- the people who smiled, the people who laughed, the people who tried (and failed) to pick up the waitresses; pretty much everyone within his range of vision really.

People-watching had never exactly been a favorite hobby of his, but somehow it was a lot more appealing when the people he was watching were the denizens of an entirely different _world_.

The thought hit Adam like a freight train.

 _'That's right, I_ am _in a different world now; they're not the aliens here,_ I _am. I've been stuck here for almost two weeks now. My friends and family are gone, and I may never see any of them again…'_

 _'I…'_

 _'I wonder if my parents are doing okay…'_

"Are you alright?"

Adam jolted back to awareness and saw Louise looking at him with concerned eyes, all traces of her earlier irritation having vanished completely. Suppressing his uncharacteristically morose train of thought, he offered his amber-eyed summoner a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just thinking about home."

"O-oh…" Louise responded, clearly still worried. "Would you like to… talk about it?"

"…Yeah, I suppose I did kinda promise to do that…" Adam sighed and sat back in his chair, "Alright, what do you want to know?"

Louise looked unsure for a moment and glanced over to where Guiche sat, receiving only a slight shrug from the blond boy. "Well… _everything_ , I suppose. We really don't know _anything_ about you other than the fact that you were brought here to be my familiar, and that you're uncommonly skilled when it comes to fighting." she hesitantly answered after turning back.

"Everything, huh? That's awfully vague." Adam responded with a slight teasing grin, "Well I guess in that case, I should start at the beginning."

Leaning forwards, Adam placed his elbows on the table, intertwined his hands beneath his chin, and cleared his throat. If he was going to give them his life story, the least he could do was make it interesting to listen to.

 _'And now I'm dramatizing my own life for the benefit of magical teenagers from another world. If only Nate could see me now…'_

"My birth was un-extraordinary." he began, "It was at 2:16 in the afternoon on a Thursday. If I had to guess, it was, in all likelihood, a rather _boring_ affair in the grand scheme of things. I entered the world in the usual way, to a loving mother and father, named Linda and Robert. My mom worked as a CPA, while-"

"What's a CPA?" Guiche interrupted with a questioning look.

"It stands for 'Certified Public Accountant'. Basically, she works with other people's money. Anyway, my mom was a CPA while my dad worked in online advertising. We lived in a fairly decent sized house in the suburbs, and because my parents both had good jobs we never really wanted for anything." Adam explained before turning to preempt the question already forming on Louise's lips, "And before you ask- it's hard to explain, and isn't actually all-that important. Just know that my dad worked from home, and that he was paid well for what he did."

Louise closed her mouth and nodded, signaling for him to resume his story.

Adam nodded back in acknowledgement before continuing, "So yeah, we were pretty well-off as far as middle-class families go. I don't really remember anything too clearly from back then, but I'm certain we were happy. At least, as far as my little toddler-sized mind could tell."

Slowly, Adam lowered his gaze to the table in front of him. "I was three years old when my mother gave birth again. Another boy, named Michael."

"…I take it this caused some sort of problem?" Guiche spoke up after more than a few moments of awkward silence.

Adam shook his head and smiled nostalgically at the earth mage's assumption, "On the contrary- _never_ in my life have I _not known_ that I wanted something _so badly_ until I already had it as I did on the day my mom gave me a little brother. From the word 'go', we were inseparable."

Guiche gave a surprised look at the older boy's declaration, but Louise's reaction was far more visceral in nature. She gasped and raised her hands to cover her mouth as the blood drained from her face.

"B-back in the Headmaster's office… you said…"

Adam offered the girl a quizzical look before thinking back and remembering the conversation they'd shared with Osmond and Colbert the day they met-

 _"_ … _Or did you think that you'd summoned someone who'd just give up everything to be your familiar if you asked them nicely? I was in University, working towards a successful career! My parents… oh god, my parents… I'll be the second child they've lost…"_

"Ah," Adam realized with a pained expression, "yeah, I suppose you already know how this turns out, huh Louise?" Adam had completely forgotten that he'd already mentioned some of his family background to his amber-eyed friend, and internally winced at the realization that he'd basically used it as ammunition against her back when she still believed that she could claim dominion over him by right of birth alone.

Adam sighed and awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck as Guiche glanced back and forth between the older boy and his summoner in confusion.

"Well anyway," Adam continued, "like I said- my brother and I were inseparable. We went everywhere and did everything together, we liked almost all the same stuff; hell, our birthdays were less than a month apart."

Adam couldn't help the smile that formed on his face as he reminisced, "I remember getting up on multiple occasions to go take care of him when he would wake up and start crying in the middle of the night. Either my mom or my dad would show up a minute or two later, only to find that I already had the situation under control. Of course, then they'd send _me_ back to bed because I was, like, FIVE at the time and shouldn't have been up that late..."

Louise regarded the older boy with a melancholic gaze, "You really loved your brother, didn't you?"

Adam gave a solemn nod in response to the girl's question.

"I did. Still do, really."

"What… what happened to him?"

Adam said nothing and just looked at Louise, who already appeared to regret having asked the question. She was fidgeting in her seat and averting her gaze from his own, which he supposed he could understand. After all, she already knew what kind of conversation this would be.

Adam released a pent-up sigh and spoke in an even tone.

"He got sick."

"Sick?" Guiche nervously asked, beginning to take notice of Louise's discomfort himself.

"Yup. When he was about four years old, he started getting really sick more and more frequently. After a _particularly_ bad case of… I think it was pneumonia or something… anyway, my parents decided to get some proper tests done and see if there was something more seriously wrong with him."

Adam paused. "…I remember my mom coming home in tears after talking with the doctor."

Tiredly running a hand through his hair, Adam sighed again, "The name probably won't mean much to you, but it was called 'acute myelogenous leukemia', a serious degenerative condition that affects your blood cells. It's a type of cancer with a survival rate of about 35%, and the only real treatment for it is generally considered to be just as awful to go through as the condition itself."

All was silent in the group for a moment, before the steely baritone of Derflinger broke the spell.

"Damn… Partner, that's some heavy stuff."

"Trust me, it gets heavier." Adam responded in a solemn tone. "Anyway, to make a long story short, my younger brother started undergoing the treatment and ended up spending the next five years of his life bound to a hospital bed. I visited him whenever I could, which was usually just the weekends and holidays. I remember waking up every Saturday morning and packing my bag, and then either my mom or dad would ferry me over to the hospital, where I would spend the whole day just hanging out with my brother. I'd bring him all sorts of stuff, like card games, videogames, new movies to watch, new books to read; in fact, he's the reason I'm such a huge fantasy nerd. Stories about magic and knights and adventures were always his favorite. I guess his interests kinda rubbed off on me after a while."

Adam briefly considered explaining what movies and videogames were to the two student mages, but quickly decided that the contextual knowledge wasn't all that important to his story. If his discussions with Colbert were any indication, such topics would only lead to more questions, and eventually they'd move on to other subjects entirely. Instead, Adam leaned back and stared at the ceiling of the Charming Faeries Inn, balancing on the two back legs of his chair as his companions hung on his every word.

"Slowly, that became normal for me. I'd spend the week like an average kid- going to school, doing homework, playing with friends, and then spend the weekend hanging with my brother in the hospital. For years, that was my whole life."

The two airborne legs of Adam's chair hit the floor with an audible *thunk* as he sagged noticeably in his seat.

"Until one day, when it all fell apart."

He never did like talking about this part. Who in their right mind would? Still, he _had_ promised to tell Louise everything she wanted to know about himself. It was only fair, and he'd be lying if he said that his brother's death hadn't played a direct role in shaping him into who he was today.

"I remember it was a Tuesday and sunny," he began, completely forgetting that Louise and Guiche probably had no idea what 'Tuesday' even was, "I was thirteen years old, and I had just come home from school. I walked through the front door, and I immediately knew _something_ was up. I could hear my mother sobbing somewhere else in the house, and my dad… I'd never seen him look so _old_ in my life. Being the stupid and innocent little thirteen year-old I was, I asked him what was wrong and… well, he told me."

Adam almost choked. It hurt, he'd _expected_ it to hurt, but nevertheless he had to go through with this.

"He told me 'Michael is dead', and those three words almost broke our family."

"…How?"

Adam wasn't quite sure who'd asked the question. But then again, did it really matter?

"My mother buried herself in her job. She started working longer hours, she started working weekends, she spent more and more time out of the house; anything to distract herself from the unending worst nightmare of parents everywhere. My father, on the other hand, tried to numb the pain with alcohol. He never got belligerent or physical with us, but sometimes I'd come home from school and there he'd be- sitting in his office chair, empty bottle in hand and vacantly staring at the wall. And I could always tell that he'd been like that for hours. It got so bad that, for a while, it seemed like my folks might split up at any time."

Louise looked on in horror at her friend's tale, while a noticeably paler Guiche had stopped staring at the nearby waitresses entirely.

Adam forged on.

"But me? I was different. I didn't get sad. Instead, I got _angry_. I was only thirteen; I had no idea what was going on. I wasn't emotionally mature enough to really understand the concept of 'Death' or its permanence. All I knew was that my brother was gone, that something had unfairly taken him from me, and it made me _mad_. I began lashing out at everyone- my parents, my teachers, my friends, my schoolmates, total strangers; I was hurt and confused and angry, and I took it out on everyone. I started fights at school just to vent; I blew up at the smallest things. And funnily enough, my parents were the first to give me up as a lost cause. They eventually just stopped putting forth the effort required to keep me in line, opting instead to nurse their emotional wounds on their own, and in their own way. My friends were the next to go; they, understandably, decided that they no longer wanted to be around someone as genuinely unpleasant as I was."

"That's awful…" Louise spoke up in a quiet voice.

Adam offered her a pained smile. "Yeah, I was in a really bad place for a long time. After a while, the school administrators got fed up with me and kicked me out. I ended up switching into a local private school because nobody else would take me, and _that_ was where I quickly became the main punching bag of one 'Nathaniel Hawthorne Bell' and his Merry Band of Bullies."

Guiche raised an eyebrow, "Merry Band of Bullies?"

"Yeah. His parents were rich, even owned a friggin' _vineyard_ , so he thought he could throw his family's weight around and do whatever he wanted to the other kids. Naturally, this attracted a few of the bigger kids who thought that latching themselves onto the rich boy and leeching off of his influence was in their best interest. I'm told that they treated pretty much everyone like crap before I got there. Of course, as the 'new kid' I was already a target, but when I started fighting back it _really_ sealed the deal. From that day forward, it was pretty much a given that I was coming home from school covered in bruises and blood, not all of which was my own."

"I see. I suppose it is no wonder you know how to fight the way you do." Guiche commented, before motioning for Adam to continue.

That wasn't completely true, but Adam nodded anyway. He wasn't sure what his crazy awesome runes were, but there was no sense in telling the boy about them right now.

 _'Though, I should probably mention them to Louise at some point…'_

"And so it went; no friends left, emotionally damaged, if not outright _absent_ parents, and the unfortunate attention of a group of jocks who didn't appreciate how I refused to quietly take my beatings. For a few years, it went on and on like that. It wasn't until my second year of high-school that anything of real significance happened."

Guiche spoke up once more, "And? What happened?"

"I have absolutely no idea how, but _somehow_ Nathan found out about Michael."

"Oh no…" Louise whispered, her hands having long since returned to covering her mouth, a solitary tear tract running down the left side of her face.

"Oh _yes_. He found out about Michael, and he used it against me. That guy actually _mocked_ the fact that I had a _dead brother_ and, well… I snapped."

"What happened, Partner? What do you mean 'you snapped'?"

"I mean I lost control and put him in a coma." Adam intoned evenly, "He almost didn't make it."

Guiche gave a huff at the older boy's words and crossed his arms. "Well, if you ask _me_ , that ruffian got exactly what he deserved. If any of _my_ older brothers had been in your position I'm sure they would've done just the same as you did. Filth like that ' _Nathaniel_ ' boy doesn't deserve to even walk the same earth as someone who's gone through as much as you have."

Adam just looked at Guiche for a few moments before offering the blond boy a wry grin, "Wow, congratulations Guiche. You've learned how to express 'empathy'. I'm so proud."

Guiche's eyes widened in momentary realization before narrowing into a glare aimed at the commoner boy and his now-snickering sword.

At that, Adam's grin reshaped itself into a genuine smile, "In all seriousness though, thank you Guiche. I appreciate the thought, but try to refrain from passing judgement on Nathan till you've heard the whole story."

"Why? He sounds like an irredeemable brute."

Adam couldn't help but laugh at that, "Ahaahaahahha… yeah I suppose he does, doesn't he? But sometimes good people just do bad things. Believe it or not, Nathan eventually went on to become one of my closest friends. I didn't know it at the time, but angering me to the point that I actually blacked out and beat him to Death's doormat was the best thing he could've done for me."

Louise and Guiche offered the emerald-eyed boy a confused look as Derflinger spoke up again.

"Alright Partner, you're gonna have to explain _that_ one."

Adam settled himself back into his seat before continuing with his story. "I'm not too sure how it works here, but back where _I_ come from, you can't almost beat someone to death without the authorities taking a vested interest in you. They almost put me in juvenile detention for what I did to Nathan. Luckily however, it got out that I had only gone crazy because Nate had given me hell for having a dead brother. Nate's father, who incidentally had _no idea_ what his son had been doing up to that point, ended up dropping the civil charges. But only on the condition that I begin anger management counseling. That, in turn, served as something of a wake-up call for my parents, and they started attending marriage counseling as a show of 'family solidarity'. My mom started working less and less, my dad threw out all of his booze, and I…"

A warm smile crept onto Adam's face as he paused for a brief moment.

"I met Rachel Warrens."

Guiche raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar name, "And that is…?"

"The girl that pulled me back from the ledge." Adam answered, "Not _literally_ , mind you. Things never got _that_ bad." he swiftly elaborated, much to Louise's visible relief.

"I see…" the strawberry-blonde girl spoke, "What was she like?"

"She was tall, only about an inch or so shorter than I am now, and athletic with fashionably-short brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was volunteering at the clinic that I went to for my therapy, and she actually ended up recognizing me from school. We started talking to each other, and I eventually found out that she'd lost her mother to breast cancer when she was five. After that, we talked more and more, opening up to each other, even spending time together outside of school and therapy, until eventually…"

"…You fell in love, didn't you?"

Adam sighed at the young girl's words and scratched at the back of his neck, a slight blush of embarrassment coloring his face.

"Yeah. I fell in love. Rachel kept me stable, acting as something of a 'calming influence' in my life, and helped to fill the hole that Michael's death had opened up. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was absolutely one-hundred-percent _smitten_ with her. In fact, it was actually on her recommendation that I started visiting Nathan while he slept in the hospital."

"Why in Brimir's name would she suggest you do something like _that_?" Guiche asked with an incredulous look.

Adam responded with a nonchalant shrug, "Mostly for closure purposes. Or, at least, that's how she explained it to me. And believe it or not, it actually _did_ kind of help. It sort of felt like visiting my brother again, and the quiet atmosphere was always nice. At least, until he finally woke up."

"How long had he been out for?" Louise asked.

Adam silently cupped his chin for a few moments before answering, "I think it was… three months and ten days, or something like that. Anyway, he was _not_ happy to see me, and even _less_ happy when he found out what had happened to him, which I suppose is understandable. But seeing as he was stuck in the hospital and I was more or less free to do whatever, he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. We refused to talk to each-other at first, so I just used his hospital room as a place to do my homework out of sheer force of habit. Eventually, he decided to try and threaten me into leaving him alone. I… did not respond well to that, and we ended up wrestling in the hallway, screaming obscenities at each other until the nurses finally managed to pry us apart. But after _that_ , things started to gradually become more… well, I won't say we were 'friendly', but we were at least civil with each other. _Cordial_ even. Eventually, we started talking about random stuff- school, sports, trends and pop culture… and after we'd mellowed out a bit, we were surprised to find that we actually had quite a few common interests. A little while after that and he was finally released from the hospital with a pair of crutches and an otherwise clean bill of health. A few weeks after _that_ , and he was eating lunch with me and Rachel, who were openly dating at that point. By the time we graduated, you'd never know that, at one point, we had made a concerted effort to tear each other's throats out on the floor of a hospital hallway."

"You just… _forgave_ him? Just like that? After everything he put you through?" Guiche asked, disbelief written in his features.

"I probably _wouldn't_ have, if not for one thing."

"And that 'thing' was?"

Adam closed his eyes and smiled, "Halfway through our senior year of high-school, his parents had another kid. Nate had officially become an older sibling, and the day after getting to meet _his own_ little brother, he approached me and apologized for what he'd said and done with regards to mine. _Sincerely_. And at that moment, everything that had gone on between the two of us was acknowledged, mutually forgiven, and put behind us."

Guiche didn't respond to the older boy's explanation, but regarded him with an inscrutable look as Derflinger threw in his two cents.

"…Wow. That's a pretty crazy story, Partner."

"It's not over yet." Adam replied, lightly drumming his fingers on the table at which they sat. "After high-school comes college."

"You kept mentioning that 'college' thing before." Louise spoke up, "Is it anything like the Academy?"

"Sort-of, but not really. College, or 'University', is just a general term for optional post-secondary education, where you take more specialized classes for the career field you've chosen." Adam answered, prompting Guiche to give the older boy an incredulous look.

"Now see here; I'm willing to believe that whatever strange land you hail from allows its commoners to receive a basic education, but _specialized classes?_ _Career fields?_ The nobles would never allow such a thing."

Slowly, Adam and Louise turned to each other in silent conversation.

 _'Do you think I should tell him?'_ Adam questioned with his eyes.

Louise subtly shook her head, _'Probably not a good idea. It's difficult to believe the whole_ other worlds _thing in the first place, and we don't know how he'll react.'_

Adam nodded and turned back to Guiche, who was once more glancing back and forth between Louise and her familiar in confusion, "Sorry Guiche, but you'll just have to go with it for now."

Guiche stared at Adam for a few moments, as if trying to glean some of the information they were obviously hiding from him, but eventually sighed in resignation.

"Very well, have it your way. What happened after you graduated from this 'high-school'?"

"All three of us ended up enrolling in the same local university," Adam stated, continuing from where he'd left off, "Nate and I became roommates, I was still going steady with Rachel, and the _strangest_ thing happened."

Louise leaned forwards in anticipation, "And? What was it? What happened?"

Adam grinned, "I made friends."

Guiche and Louise's faces fell into deadpan stares that they wordlessly levelled at the older boy.

Adam returned with a disgruntled pout, "Hey, that was kind-of a big deal for me back then. Keep in mind that I hadn't really had 'friends' outside of Rachel and, later, Nathan for _five years_ at that point. Being a loner _sucks_ , and the chance to connect with other people who didn't already know me as 'that weird angry kid' was important to me."

Louise's eyes softened as she nodded in sympathetic understanding, but Guiche maintained his deadpan for a few more moments before relenting with a clipped "fine…", causing Louise and Derflinger to release a quiet giggle and snicker respectively.

" _Anyway_ ," Adam soldiered on, "I started making friends again, and for a while everything was great. My parents were closer than they'd been in years, I had a good group of friends, not to mention an _awesome_ girlfriend, and my grades were… well, they weren't _fantastic_ , but they were better than they'd been in a while."

Adam paused, wondering if he should skip the next part of the story, but Derflinger took that chance away from him by interrupting his thoughts.

"I sense a 'but…' coming. What happened next?"

Adam ran his hand through his hair again and didn't immediately answer. Did he _really_ have to get into this? He'd had almost a decade to adjust to the death of his brother, but the event that his friends semi-seriously referred to as 'The Great Betrayal' had occurred less than two years ago. It was still something of a sore-point with him.

Adam released a deep sigh, "…About two months into our sophomore year, I found out Rachel was cheating on me… _had_ been cheating on me for a while."

Louise's jaw dropped as Derflinger gave a wry chuckle, "Damn, Partner. You just can't catch a break, can you?"

"That's… how could… why…" Louise trailed off, unable to generate a coherent train of thought, before turning to look at Guiche, who was making a great effort to avoid the gaze of his two companions for the day.

"Well, I suppose that explains why you were so harsh on Guiche when he was cheating on Montmorency and Katie…" the diminutive girl finally managed to articulate, as Guiche cleared his throat in obvious discomfort.

* _Ah-hem_ * "Yes, well, enough about _that_ unpleasantness. I was under the impression that we were talking about your _familiar_ instead of _me_ , Zer-… Vallière."

Louise levelled a glare at her classmate's slipup, then turned back to face Adam with sadness and confusion in her eyes.

"But, _why_? Why would she _do_ something like that? You sounded like you were so happy together!"

Adam responded with a sad smile, "Like I said before, sometimes good people do bad things. Human nature is screwy like that."

Louise quietly digested her friend's words as he continued on with his story, "So yeah, long-story-short, I found out Rachel was cheating on me with another guy, we broke up, and I was super awkward to be around for a few months. Luckily, my friends managed to keep me afloat this time. Nathan, Carol, Yosef and Jamal, Aisha, Greg, Mitchell… they were the support group that kept me from undergoing a _total_ relapse."

Derflinger spoke up, "And Rachel?"

"We haven't spoken to each-other since I confronted her about it. Actually, I don't believe she's spoken to _any_ of us since then. Hell, I had to physically _restrain_ Nathan from going after her in retaliation when _he_ found out."

"I see."

Guiche grimaced, but looked up to meet Adam's eyes, "So… how did you get over it?"

Adam chuckled slightly at the question.

"It's actually kind-of a funny story. A couple of months after the breakup, Nate got tired of me sitting around the apartment brooding all the time and dragged me out to an off-campus party. I drank _way_ too much, passed out, woke up the next morning in bed next to a girl I didn't know, and decided that it was time to move on with my life."

All was silent at the table for the better part of a minute, until Louise's face flushed bright scarlet, Derflinger burst out into laughter, and Guiche nodded sagely.

"THAT'S IT!? _ALCOHOL_ AND _S-S-SEX_ FIXED ALL OF YOUR LIFE PROBLEMS!?" Louise shouted in mortified outrage, bursting upwards from her seated position and briefly attracting the attention of the other patrons of the Charming Faeries Inn before they turned away, deciding to ignore the loud noble girl and return to their drinks and merriment.

"Come now Vallière," Guiche began, giving the girl a patronizing look, "just because you don't understand _adult_ relationships-"

"Shove it, Gramont." Louise interrupted with a hateful glare.

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Honestly, that girl had the absolute _shortest_ fuse of anyone he'd ever met. Aside from himself when he was younger, of course. "Calm down, Louise. _No_ , alcohol and sex did _not_ fix my life problems. It was more of a… 'moment of clarity' that I experienced in the _wake_ of alcohol and sex. When I woke up that morning, everything that had happened with Rachel and me just seemed so… _insignificant_ for some reason. After the breakup, I had slowly been slipping back into my old habits of lashing out at other people, and while my friends may have understood and accepted the reasons behind my behavior, they _certainly_ weren't just going to stand there and take it. They did their best to keep me positive, and since Nathan had already seen all of that crap play out with me once already, he ended up trying to essentially _force_ me to cheer up. I guess it just wasn't until the morning after that party that their message finally sunk in."

"So it wasn't the alcohol and s-sex then?"

 _'Oh my god, she's so innocent. That's hilarious.'_ Adam thought to himself, taking note of Louise's repeated stuttering over the word 'sex'. "Nope, I just decided that I was tired of being miserable. So I stopped."

Louise's blush abated somewhat as she lowered herself back into her chair, but she continued to shoot scathing glances in Guiche's direction as the sword at Adam's side finally managed to reign in its laughter.

"Hahahahahehehehhh… oh man, you're shaping up to be a _very_ interesting guy, Partner."

 _'_ … _Am I supposed to take that as a compliment or…?'_

"Thanks… I guess? So anyway, this story has gone on long enough so I'll skip to the end- fast forward about a year to one fateful morning when I accidentally fell through a strange green portal, and woke up in a crater in front of a _certain someone_ …" Adam trailed off, sending a grin in Louise's direction and eliciting a smile in return, "…and, well… you know the rest."

Louise's smile gradually fell from her face as she gazed at Adam with concerned eyes.

"Do you… hate her?"

"Who, Rachel?"

Louise gave a small nod.

Adam thought for a few moments before answering, "Nah, I don't hate Rachel. Sure, things between us could've ended a lot better than they did; but what she did _to_ me doesn't negate or take away from what she did _for_ me. She accepted me for who I was and helped me become a better person. She took a bitter, maladjusted, and emotionally volatile kid and made him happy, if only for a little while. I wasn't kidding when I said that she pulled me back from the metaphorical ledge, and I'll always be grateful to her for that."

The group fell into a comfortable silence as Adam returned to his people-watching, while Louise and Guiche took their time thinking over the older boy's story.

Once more, Adam leaned back in his chair.

 _'How much longer is the food going to take?'_

 **-)|(-**

As the afternoon sun slowly crept ever closer to the distant horizon, Adam, Louise, and Guiche silently trudged onward through the waves of late-afternoon marketgoers, doggedly making their way through the still considerably crowded streets of Tristania towards the carriage depot at the edge of town where they could get a ride back to the Academy. All things considered, Louise could only think of the day (entertaining and enlightening as it was) as a total success. She'd gotten the chance to stroll around town and browse the many stalls of the Tristania Marketplace, just like she used to do with her older sisters before Cattleya fell ill and Eleanore became so high-strung; Adam had procured a sword that he was happy with (and for a _far_ lower price than she'd expected to pay when they'd left the Academy that morning), and perhaps most importantly, she finally had a good idea of just _who_ her summoned guardian really was as a person. She'd accomplished everything she'd set out to do that day, and more.

That fact should've made her happy, but instead she just felt… well, she actually wasn't really _sure_ how she felt. 'Guilty' might've been close, but that wasn't _quite_ it.

Glancing over at her friend, Louise watched him as he casually weaved back and forth between the locals, ears covered by his (reluctantly) returned head-phone thingies, and sporting a small smile as he lightly bobbed his head to music no-one else could hear. She was happy that Adam had decided to trust her with his past, Guiche's presence notwithstanding, and she'd decided to return the favor and share her own with him as they ate. She told him about her sisters Cattleya and Eleanore, about how she used to play with the princess when they were younger, and about how she used to be engaged. She told him about her mother and her 'Rule of Steel'. She even told him about how she used to hide from the servants when her mother or Eleanore would scold her for messing up another spell.

Louise was immensely thankful that they'd grown as close as they had in the short amount of time they'd been together; Adam really was starting to feel like the protective and supportive older brother she'd never had. But when she thought about what he'd told her, about everything he'd been through and overcome, about how he'd _finally_ managed to achieve some measure of stability in his life… it just made the knowledge that she'd ripped all of that away from him cut that much deeper. She'd summoned him far away from his home and family to a world that was clearly nothing like his own, and Louise just couldn't help but worry- did he, on some level, resent her for it?

She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

 _'Back when we first met, he said that he didn't hold it against me because I hadn't planned on summoning him any more than he'd planned on being summoned. Does he still feel that way? Was he expecting to have already found a way home by now?'_

Louise's gut feeling was that he wouldn't hate her, but still…

 _'I suppose I could just_ ask _him… but would he even tell me the truth?'_

She honestly couldn't say with any certainty whether he would or not. He'd already gone to great lengths in his attempts to boost her abysmal self-esteem. Would he do something like that if he were harboring some sort of bitterness towards her over his detainment in her world? She didn't think he would, but she had to admit that, were she in his position, she wouldn't be _nearly_ as calm and accepting of the situation as her friend seemed to be. She knew that he was still searching for a way home, but considering the fact that he couldn't read any of the literature that the Academy had on the summoning ritual, it would certainly take longer than he'd initially hoped.

A small, traitorous part of Louise's mind whispered, _'…Do you even_ want _him to find a way home?'_

Louise mercilessly crushed that train of thought as quickly as it had arisen in her mind. She couldn't deny that her life had _drastically_ improved ever since she'd summoned Adam. Ever since he'd had his duel with Guiche, her classmates had stopped picking on her almost entirely. Now that she had a friend who was outspoken in his support of her, a _partner_ and a _guardian_ that she could proudly claim as her own, she didn't have to worry about people laughing at her as she walked through the hallway. She didn't have to worry about her classmates' jeers when she accidentally blew up another classroom. She didn't have to worry about never having a partner to work with when the professors had them practice new spells.

She didn't have to worry about being so godsdamned _**alone**_ anymore.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, the ugly truth was that she _didn't_ want Adam to leave. She _didn't_ want him to find a way back home to his family and his friends and his life. She _didn't_ want him to go and leave her all alone at the Academy again.

And that thought _disgusted_ her.

Unseen by her companions, Louise's face twisted into a pained grimace. _'NO! I could never be so selfish! He has his life, and I have mine! It wouldn't be fair to force him to stay just because I screw everything up. I just have to stay positive! Everything is going to be okay! Everything will turn out alri-'_

"DAAAAAARRRRRRLLLLLIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG!"

Louise's internal monologue was abruptly cut short as a large red blur burst out of the remnants of the crowd that had previously surrounded them and launched itself at her summoned companion, wrapping its arms around his head and shoving his face in between it's breasts.

"It's so good to see you again Darling!"

 _'OH, SON OF A PROTESTANT WHORE!'_

Louise had to grind her teeth together to prevent herself from vocalizing her less-than-refined response to the sight of that abominable Zerbst woman draping herself all over Adam like some kind of common floozy, her blue-haired friend arriving a few moments later with a large cloth-bound object held in her arms.

 _'Why!? Why is_ she _here!? And what in the Founder's name is she doing to my familiar!?'_

" _Kirch… an't… eathe…!_ " Adam managed to choke out as the amorous Germanian's assets rapidly cut off his supply of precious oxygen. Kirche glanced towards her 'darling', noticed his face rapidly turning blue from lack of air, and promptly released him.

*GASP**huff**huff**huff**huff* Adam leaned over with his hands on his knees and gulped in lungful after lungful of air, "Sweet JESUS, girl... those things are _lethal_..."

"Eh heh heh... sorry about that!"

Slowly his breathing normalized, and with one final huff he stood up straight as he paused his music and slipped his headphones down around his neck.

"Kirche, Tabitha." He greeted the duo, "I'd comment on the odds of us running into each other like this, but I get the feeling it wasn't exactly a coincidence..."

"That's right, Darling!" Kirche answered, ignoring her fellow classmates entirely and addressing Adam with a smile. "I'd heard you were in need of a weapon, and I knew that Vallière would _never_ purchase something sufficient for someone of _your_ caliber. So, I decided to buy you the best weapon I could find myself!"

"You mean you _spied on us_ , you harlot!" Louise seethed at the redhead, fists balled at her sides and hackles raised. "Well for your information, I already bought Adam a sword; the sword that _he_ picked out for himself!"

Kirche _tsk tsk'd_ at the young blonde and condescendingly glanced at the blade strapped to Adam's back, "Yes, and look what kind of blade he settled for. He's obviously too humble to ask for a weapon worthy of his skills, so he chose an old rusted piece of scrap that even _you_ wouldn't deny him! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if-"

"OI, who the hell do ya think you're talkin' about!? You think that just because you've got big tits that you can start talkin' shit about an honest, hard-working blade like the mighty Derflinger, you big- GGMPFFF!"

Kirche stared dumbstruck at the foul-mouthed armament that Adam had just forcibly shoved back into its scabbard, her jaw hanging loosely as Louise silently revised her opinion of the sapient blade, now looking upon it in a far more positive light than before. Tabitha, composed as always, merely raised an eyebrow at the sword's outburst.

"It talks?"

Adam sighed and awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck, "Yeah, he talks. And on that note, I suppose this calls for introductions. Kirche, Tabitha, meet the newest addition to the group- Derflinger."

Tabitha gave a silent nod in the blade's direction, while Kirche valiantly attempted to get back on topic with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Okay, so maybe your sword is a _little_ more interesting than I expected; it still can't compare to _this_."

With a flourish, Kirche took the object nestled in Tabitha's arms and removed the cloth wrapped around her gift, revealing the same golden sword that André had tried to sell them before, and nearly causing Louise to descend into a fit of apoplectic rage.

 _'How DARE she!? She's just trying to show me up by getting him the most expensive thing she can! She's trying to BRIBE Adam into liking her!'_

Louise took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. _'No, Adam isn't nearly shallow enough for that to work. He said so himself- he would only carry that sword into battle if he were trying to get himself killed. He'll refuse the gift, and then I can rub Zerbst's smug face in it!'_

The buxom redhead offered the older boy a beatific smile, "Well, Darling? What do you think?"

Adam gazed at the sword swaddled in her arms for a few moments before answering.

"As _flagrant_ an attempt to get into my good graces, and by extension my pants, as this is... I do appreciate the thought." Adam responded, reaching out and taking the blade with a smile. "Thank you, Kirche."

 _'Just as I thought, there's no way he would- WAIT, WHAT!?'_

"WHAT!? B-but I already bought you the sword you wanted!"

Kirche turned to her shocked schoolmate with a superior grin, "Sorry Vallière, but it looks like you're wrong about that; _I'm_ the one who bought him the sword he _really_ wanted."

"Actually, Kirche," Adam interrupted, " _you're_ the one who's wrong."

"Huh?"

Adam turned to face his young companion staring at him with hurt and confused eyes.

"Yes Louise, you _did_ purchase the sword I picked out, and I'm very grateful for that. However, Kirche has also decided to purchase a sword of her own free will, motivations aside, with the intention of giving it to me as a gift. Therefore, I will graciously accept it, _as a gift_."

Louise angrily stomped her foot into the cobblestone in response to the boy's words.

"No! I will _never_ accept a gift from the Zerbst!"

Adam gave his young companion a slight scowl, "Then I suppose it's a good thing you're not the one receiving it, now isn't it?"

Kirche gave a haughty laugh and offered Louise a sly grin, "Now now, Vallière. Why don't we just let him _choose_ which sword he likes best- the rusted scrap metal _you_ bought him ("Oi!"), or the wonderful, masterfully crafted Germanian blade that _I_ bought him."

"Fine!" Louise shouted, turning from the redhead to face the emerald-eyed boy at her side. "Tell us, Adam. Which sword do you like better- the useless wall ornament _Zerbst_ bought you, or the incredibly rare ancient talking sword that _I_ bought you?"

Adam frowned at the young Vallière girl. "You don't honestly expect me to answer that, do you?"

"Don't worry, Darling. Just tell us what you really think."

"Uhh, how about 'no'?" Adam turned his irritated gaze onto the Germanian girl, "I'm not 'choosing' which sword I like best. You're both being childish and petty."

Louise winced, as if his words were a physical blow. On one hand, she knew that Adam was right; she _was_ being petty. After all, Adam had already all-but-admitted that he preferred Derflinger to the wall-ornament-at-best, liability-at-worst 'gift' that Zerbst had purchased. But on the other hand, she would rather die than let Kirche have her way!

Well, maybe not _die_. Not when her life was finally turning around. Still, a Vallière never gave up without a fight!

"But Adam, you said that sword was a terrible weapon!"

"Hey!" Kirche indignantly spoke up, "I'll have you know that this sword was made by-!"

"I did say it was a terrible weapon." Adam cut the redhead off, causing her to turn to him with a hurt look. "And it _is_ a terrible weapon. However, I _also_ said it was a fantastic set-piece."

That brought Louise up short. True, he _had_ made such a comment about the blade, but she was having difficulty understanding why that would be relevant. Did he think that her room was too plain or something?

"So? For what reason could you possibly need something like a 'set-piece'?"

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, "Louise, _think_ about it for a second- you are the daughter of a Duke. Your parents are _very_ high up in the Tristainian sociopolitical spectrum. Therefore, it stands to reason that you're eventually going to have to attend some very formal events. If I haven't made it home by then, then as your summoned guardian I'm probably going to have to act as your escort to such things. Don't you think a sword like this would come in handy during times like that?"

"But… couldn't you just use Derflinger for that?"

Adam snorted, "Normally I would, but let's be real- Derflinger's not much to look at."

Derflinger rose from his scabbard in outrage. "What the hell, Partner!?"

"Shut up Derf, you know it's true. As cool as you are, you don't exactly turn heads. Not with your _looks_ at least."

The sapient blade mumbled something unintelligible (and vaguely unflattering) as it begrudgingly sank back into its sheath, and Adam returned his attention to his young summoner.

"I realize that there's no love lost between you and Kirche, Louise; believe me, I _get_ that. But look at it from a 'cost vs. benefit' perspective- there are clear benefits to accepting Kirche's gift, and the only _real_ cost is the gold she herself used to pay for it. So what's the problem?"

Louise's mouth opened as if to refute the older boy's arguments, but seconds passed and still no rebuttal escaped her lips. Instead, she closed her mouth and offered her companion a small pout of annoyance. "…I hate it when you do that…"

Adam raised an eyebrow in response. "Do what?"

"Get all… 'logical' against me like that."

"Yeah, well get used to it. I'm a logical kinda guy." Adam answered the younger girl's half-hearted protestations with a teasing grin.

It was at that point that Guiche cleared his throat and broke his silence to interject into the conversation, jerking his thumb off to the side in order to point out the rapidly setting sun in the distance.

"Well if _that's_ settled, then perhaps we can get a move on now? I don't know about _you_ four, but _I_ would prefer to arrive back at the Academy sometime _before_ nightfall…"

 **-)|(-**

"Let go of my familiar, Zerbst!"

"Buzz off Vallière. The adults are busy."

"I said to let him go, you tramp!"

"A _tramp_ am I? Well I'd rather be a tramp than an unappealing Zero like you!"

Through sheer force of will alone, Adam _just barely_ managed to hold in the sigh of long-time suffering that cried for sweet release as Louise and Kirche loudly argued with each other, pulling him back and forth in their determined attempts to both hog his attention and stonewall the other's efforts to do the same. For over an hour, the two girls had done nothing but bicker with each other over the smallest things. First, Louise had complained about the fact that Kirche and Tabitha had deigned to join them in the carriage at all, considering the fact that Sylphid (who now flew along with the carriage in the air above them) was still perfectly capable of ferrying them back to the Academy. Then she'd complained about how Kirche had chosen to sit down next to him, claiming that she was just using it as an opportunity to seduce him. To this, the redhead (unhelpfully) responded by wrapping herself around his right arm and sticking her tongue out at an increasingly furious Louise. In an attempt to prevent all-out war from breaking out inside the cramped carriage, Adam had quickly, and politely, asked Kirche to keep her hands to herself. However, while this seemed to mollify Louise somewhat, it also resulted in Kirche becoming more and more creative in her attempts to get at the older boy. She'd tried everything from engaging in footsies, to resting her head on his shoulder, to playing with the neckline of her top, and with each new attempt Louise would grow more and more incensed until, finally, the situation had devolved into the two of them tugging back and forth on his arms and screaming at each other as Guiche handled the carriage and Tabitha gazed on in awkward silence.

Adam was no fool; he was well aware of the fact that their argument had nothing to do with _him_ specifically. Despite all her assurances to the contrary, he knew that Kirche didn't really love him. After all, her attempt to seduce him in her room had literally only been the second time they'd spoken to each other. However, Kirche was clearly the kind of girl that wasn't used to being told 'no', and he could only assume that his refusal of her advances the previous night had caused her to see him as some sort of _challenge_ to be overcome. The fact that it provided her with an opportunity to keep up the family tradition of stealing away Vallière 'property' was just a bonus. Louise, on the other hand, was simply doing everything within her power to prevent Kirche from succeeding in her endeavors.

"LET GO!"

"NO, _YOU_ LET GO!"

"NO, _YOU!_ "

"YOU!"

" **YOU!** "

" _ **YOU!**_ "

 _'Alright, fuck this.'_

"HOW ABOUT _BOTH_ OF YOU LET GO BEFORE YOU RIP MY DAMN ARMS CLEAN OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS!?" the emerald-eyed boy angrily shouted, tearing his mistreated limbs from the unrelenting grips of the contentious schoolgirls. "I swear to God, if you keep arguing like this I'll kick you out of the damn carriage myself, and the two of you can _walk_ back to the Academy!"

Adam's outburst was met with a chorus of shocked faces, but the desired effect had been achieved. Both Kirche and Louise placed their hands in their laps and looked down in embarrassment at their behavior. After a few moments of silence, both let out a quiet "sorry…", which caused Adam to tiredly run a hand through his hair.

"Apology accepted. But from now on, can you two at least _try_ to keep the arguing to a minimum?"

"It's all _her_ fault…"

Adam turned to his young summoner with a small frown, "No, it's _both_ your faults. _You_ shouldn't let the behavior of others influence your own actions, Louise. Remember what I said about 'feeding the trolls'?"

"And _you_ , Kirche." Adam continued, tuning to his other side to address the resident Germanian girl, "YOU need to quit poking the lion. Louise has enough to deal with without you verbally harassing her, and next time I may not be here to pull you two apart."

Kirche scoffed at the older boy's admonishment. "Oh please, Vallière's harmless. If she could use some _real_ magic then maybe things would be different, but as it is she's more of a danger to herself than anything."

Adam offered the redheaded girl a look somewhere between 'amused' and 'bewildered'. "…You _do_ realize that she can blow things up with nothing but a word and a gesture, right?"

Kirche waved her hand dismissively in response, "That may be true, but she's got no control over it. She couldn't take out a dot mage like Guiche, much less a triangle mage like me."

Louise ground her teeth together and shook with rage at the busty redhead, but Adam merely raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Triangle mage? Aren't you, like, _seventeen_ or something? I didn't think it was possible for someone that young to reach that level of ability."

"Oh yes, it's quite possible, _and_ more common than you think." Kirche responded, fluttering her eyelashes at the older boy. "Not only am I a triangle mage, I'm not even the only triangle mage in this carriage!"

 _'Holy crap, is she serious? Damn, these are some powerful kids…'_ Adam thought to himself as he took stock of his fellow passengers. He _knew_ Louise wasn't a triangle mage, and Kirche had just outed Guiche as dot level. By process of elimination, that left only Tabitha. Adam turned his head to face the diminutive bluenette that sat across from him.

"So Tabitha's a triangle mage too then?"

"Yep!" Kirche cheerily answered, beaming at Adam as she puffed out her chest with pride. "Just as _I_ am a triangle mage that specializes in fire, Tabitha is a triangle mage that specializes in ice!"

 _'HA! FUCKING CALLED IT!'_

"Ice huh?" Adam inquired, unable to fully conceal the amusement he felt, "So how does _that_ work?"

Kirche responded with a confused look. "What do you mean 'how does it work'?"

"I mean, is ice just a sub-element of water as a whole? Or is it a combination of different elements, like water and fire?"

Instead of answering his question, the other inhabitants of the carriage (including Guiche, who really should've been paying attention to the road) all turned to stare at Adam as if he'd not only sprouted a second head, but proceeded to sing show-tunes with it as well.

"What? What'd I say?"

"Well… ice _is_ a combination of different elements…" Louise finally answered the young man after a few more moments of awkward silence. "But it's a combination of water and _wind_. What in the world made you think that adding water and _fire_ together would create _ice?_ "

"Uhh… basic thermodynamics?"

"Thermowhatsit?" Kirche eloquently asked for clarification.

Adam just shrugged in his seat, "I just figured you'd start out with a standard water spell, and then use some sort of fire-based enchantment to alter the currents of thermal conduction in order to leech the heat from the spell until it hits thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit and solidifies into ice."

Again, the emerald-eyed boy's words were met with complete silence. He could practically hear the crickets chirping in the background.

Eventually, Kirche turned to address the other passengers, "Alright, hands-up if you understood even a _word_ of what he just said."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, no-one raised their hands in answer to the redhead's call. No-one except…

"Tabitha?" Kirche looked at her friend's half-raised hand with eyes widened in surprise. "You actually _understood_ that?"

The bluenette simply nodded as she slowly lowered her hand back into her lap before turning to regard Adam with a slightly intrigued expression.

"Not really complicated. Instead of adding cold, you just subtract heat. Different method, same result. Rather clever actually."

"Well, not exactly…" Adam corrected the girl, causing her brows to furrow in puzzlement. "In a thermal system, there's no such thing as 'cold', only 'absence of heat'. There's a finite amount of energy in the universe, so it's impossible to add the concept of 'cold' to anything. You can only shift the thermal energy that already exists within an object to something else. At least, I'm _pretty sure_ that's how that works…" Adam amended, scratching at the back of his neck, "After all, I was in Chemistry, not Physics..."

Abruptly, Adam cupped his chin and looked down in deep contemplation. "But then again, do the laws of physics even _matter_ when magic is brought into the equation? I suppose it's possible that you'd be able to circumvent them with a sufficiently powerful spell... but now that I think about it, would _that_ even matter? Maybe magic itself could be considered a method of altering reality to suit the user's desires, regardless of any natural laws that may already be in place..."

Adam trailed off, muttering to himself under his breath, and this time Tabitha's was included in the group of blank faces that stared back at him.

"You lost me."

The girl's words broke through the boy's brief reverie, and he snapped up to attention.

"Hm? What?"

"I said you lost me."

"Oh, it's really not all that hard to understand." Adam continued as he tried to reassure the petite girl, "First you just need to have a basic grasp of the Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy, which states that-" the young man enthusiastically began to explain, only to be interrupted by the steely baritone of Derflinger as the sapient blade eased itself out of the scabbard strapped to his back.

"Whoa there Bill Nye, you might wanna ease up on the science lecture. These kids aren't _nearly_ ready for that kind of advanced stuff."

Adam could only sigh in disappointment at the blade's observation. "Yeah, you're probably right. I was just trying to-"

 _'Wait a minute, WHAT did he just call me!?'_

"Hold up a sec… Derf, how the hell do you even _know_ who tha- _ ***WHUMP***_

He cut off as a large tremor hit the carriage and violently jostled its inhabitants, sending Adam himself careening to the floor and Louise sprawling on top of him with a cry of surprise.

 _ ***WHUMP***_

Adam quickly sat up and rubbed the spot where his head hit the carriage's wooden floorboards with a pained wince, "What the hell is _that?_ "

 _ ***WHUMP***_

Louise looked up to face her partner with a fearful look in her eyes. "I don't know!"

 _ ***WHUMP***_

"Maybe it's an earthquake! Is there a fault-line anywhere near here!?" Adam shouted as the carriage slammed to a stop, the horses that had been pulling it moments ago struck with fear and braying in terror at the mysterious tremors.

 _ ***WHUMP***_

"What in Brimir's name is a _fault-line!?_ " Guiche queried with a panicked shout as he yanked back on the reins, valiantly trying, and failing, to reassert control over the panicking steeds.

 _ ***WHUMP***_

 _'Oh God, are we about to get Jurassic Park'd?'_

Removing Louise from where she'd landed in his lap, Adam swiftly vaulted past Kirche's frozen form and over the side of the carriage, landing crouched in the dirt on the side of the road and drawing Derflinger all in one fluid motion. With the added benefit of the spatial awareness and mental clarity that accompanied his runes' effects, he quickly scanned the surrounding countryside, trying to prepare himself as best as he could for any sort of attack that could be headed their way.

 _ ***WHUMP***_

 _ ***WHUMP***_

Slowly, IT came into view, and Adam's jaw dropped upon sighting it. It was a giant of earth and stone (easily twice as large as Guiche's Mega-Valkyrie) silhouetted against the setting sun, stomping its way through the forest a half-mile away and heading in the opposite direction as their current destination. The chorus of shocked gasps behind him revealed that his travelling companions had finally noticed the behemoth as well, and that it most certainly was _not_ a common or natural occurrence.

 _ ***WHUMP***_

 _ ***WHUMP***_

 _ ***WHUMP***_

The colossus gradually receded into the distance, the tremors that accompanied it's gargantuan footsteps fading with it until silence reigned once more.

 _'Fuck... I've got a_ baaaad _feeling about this...'_ Adam thought to himself as the adrenaline slowly wore off and he leaned up against the side of the carriage for support, a sinking feeling settling into his gut like a stone.

* * *

 **AN: Wow, over 70,000 words and we're only** _ **just now**_ **getting around to Fouquet. Guys, I think we can officially say that we're in this for the long haul. Anyway, hey everyone! How's it going? It's been a little while since this updated, but I suppose that can't be helped, what with the school semester in full swing and everything. (I've also been playing an excessive amount of Dark Souls and Undertale recently, but shhhhhhh… don't worry about that)**

 **So not only does this chapter finally introduce Derflinger to the story (I have** _ **such**_ **plans for him…), it also gives us Adam's background and shows him interacting with various members of the cast a little more. It's kind of funny, because Adam didn't actually exist when I first sat down to start writing this story.** **Starting From Zero** **was originally supposed to be a crossover, with Louise summoning High School DxD's Kiba Yuuto as Gandálfr. Unfortunately, I realized that if I did that then there's no way it** _ **wouldn't**_ **end up as a harem story, which wasn't something I wanted to write (it still isn't, just so you know). So, I scrapped that idea and decided to make up my own character. I tried to make him seem as human as I could instead of just a plot device with a cool sword, but the jury's still out on whether or not it worked.**

 **So yeah, I figure that this chapter will either make or break Adam as a character for most of you, so I'm curious as to what you think of him. Love him? Hate him? Couldn't care less about him? Let me know! Or don't. It's up to you really.**

 **Anyway, you know the drill- if you have any criticism (constructive or otherwise), you know where to leave it.**

 **And as always, thank you for reading.**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither** _ **Zero no Tsukaima**_ **(aka** _ **Familiar of Zero**_ **) nor any of its associated characters and settings.**


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